


What Follows After

by Judaiandjohan, pulveremcomedesligulas, xcyfiawnderx



Series: We fucked up and made a super hero au [4]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: #letlegendhavehugs2k20, #letlegendswear2k20, (he gets an A for effort at least), A lot of hurt and not that much comfort, All those Family and Friends feels, Answers shouldn't be this hard to get, Everyone Needs Hugs, F/M, Fluffles the Wolf Plush, Gen, Healthy Male Friendships, Hyrule just hates his best friend is gone, Hyrule says fuck once and immediately regrets it, Hyrule: 'y'all suspicious af', Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Transphobia, LOTR jokes, Legend is getting more comfortable, Legend says fuck gender roles but also fuck gender, Legend's ocarina, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Lots of tears, Malon and Time are the Best ParentsTM, Malon is best mom, Powers are Triggered by Emotions I don't make the rules, Sky is a steady boi, Surprise Guest Appearance - Freeform, Time realizes his own dumb reaction, Warriors and Sky: 'don't be suspicious', Warriors attempts music, Warriors being a supportive friend, Warriors tries to outswear Legend, a plea for freedom, dreams are weird as hell, emotional dam breaks, even the strong crack, facing reality and accepting hard truths, fuck male friendship stereotypes, genderqueer Legend, in this house we respect letting boys cry, lingering fear, people piss Time off, sibling bonds, strong but wavering big brother, the votes are in everyone agrees emotions suck, trying to find hope in a hopeless situation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24392656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Judaiandjohan/pseuds/Judaiandjohan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pulveremcomedesligulas/pseuds/pulveremcomedesligulas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xcyfiawnderx/pseuds/xcyfiawnderx
Summary: Something was wrong.It was a feeling in his gut, crying out to him all day.It only got worse until he reached the Forresters' home.Then it all came crashing down around his ears like a wave against rocks.Wild was gone
Relationships: Malon (Legend of Zelda)/Time (Linked Universe)
Series: We fucked up and made a super hero au [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1460854
Comments: 49
Kudos: 158





	1. Knowing Something is Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone and welcome to the wonderful Day After fic; a fic that started from the small idea of "how did Hyrule react to learning Wild was taken by Majora?" and then spiraled into this monster. 
> 
> .... I make no apologies. 
> 
> There will be some warnings posted in the notes of later chapters, so keep an eye out for that, but beyond that I hope you enjoy!

November 1st, and Hyrule could tell something was wrong. 

Something had to be. 

None of the Forresters were at school that day. There was zero sign of them. 

What was more, he hadn’t heard anything from Wild since the night before when he had texted a picture of himself holding a giant bag of candy with the accompanying words of **_LOOK HOW MUCH CANDY I GOT!!! I’LL MAKE SURE TO BRING SOME TO SHARE TOMORROW!_ **

But when Hyrule got to the bus stop that morning, Wild wasn’t there. Neither were Legend or Twilight. He had looked down the path that led to Lon Lon Ranch, but he didn’t see them.

He’d texted Wild, asking if they were running late or maybe they had rode with their dad? 

There hadn’t been a response. 

The bus ride to school had been a lot quieter and lonelier than Hyrule was used to. He was used to Wild being there, trying to pester Legend into eating more of the breakfast he had smuggled away in his bag, or Twilight grumbling when Wild’s insistence got to be too much and Legend ending up falling over top of Twilight in an effort to get away. 

Hyrule’s confusion grew the entire bus ride to school as his phone remained quiet. By the time he arrived at the school, he could feel the confusion starting to morph into worry.

The halls were as busy as any other Friday morning. Hyrule could see a few of the upperclassmen who were _definitely_ hungover from whatever Halloween party they attended the night before. Hyrule didn’t feel any pity for them. He’d been stuck at his parents’ charity fundraiser last night. He definitely would’ve rather gone trick-or-treating with Wild. 

The thought of Wild had Hyrule checking his phone again as he walked up to his locker. There was still _nothing_ from him. He thought maybe he should try texting Twilight or even Legend as he looked up and saw Sky and Warriors at the other end of the hallway. 

Maybe they would know?

Before he could finish at his locker and go ask them though, Wind bounced over to him.

“Hyrule!!” he cheered. “Did you finish that assignment for Mr. Forrester’s class? I had to take Aryll trick-or-treating so I almost didn’t get it done… though I actually heard Mr. Forrester isn’t even here today.”

“Wait, what?” Hyrule asked. “Mr. Forrester isn’t here?”

Wind shrugged. “That’s what I heard from Artemis. She said he was on the phone with her mom really late last night, and that her mom said he wasn’t coming in today.”

“That…” Hyrule frowned, looking back down at his phone before looking back up at Wind. “Have you heard anything from Wild or Legend?”

“Nope,” Wind said. “But I don’t really talk to them all that much out of school when there isn’t a project due. Is there something going on?”

“I’m… not sure,” Hyrule said. “None of them were on the bus this morning. And I haven’t heard from Wild since last night.”

The warning bell rang, jarring both of them. 

Wind gave Hyrule a sympathetic look. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he said. “Maybe they just had a family surprise trip!”

Hyrule wanted to believe him, but he couldn’t deny the unsettling feeling building in his stomach. 

**…**

Hyrule poked at his sandwich in disinterest. As far as school lunches went, HYAAH actually had pretty decent options. But Hyrule had never actually eaten any of those options because ever since middle school Wild had always brought him food for his lunches.

Even on the very rare days when Wild wasn’t at school for whatever reasons, he had always sent the food with Twilight.

But neither of them were at school today, which meant Hyrule had to purchase his lunch for the first time ever from the school.

Across the table, Wind and Four sat, each picking at their own lunches. Hyrule had purchased Wind’s lunch for him, the younger boy having also gotten used to eating Wild prepared lunches. Four was eating his own packed lunch. Wild had once offered to bring Four lunches, but Four had explained he always brought his own because his different splits had drastically different tastes in food, so he had to make sure his lunches accounted for that. 

Four was currently staring at one of the fourths of the sandwich he had packed, like he wasn’t sure about eating it. Hyrule could see his left eye flickering through colors as he muttered to himself. Four didn’t say anything to the rest of them though, so for the first ten minutes of lunch, they all ate in silence. 

It was Wind that spoke up first, not really surprising any of them. 

“Is it weird that none of the Forresters are here today?” he asked around a mouthful of fish taco. “I think it’s weird.”

Four lifted his head, blinking as his eye seemed to settle on purple. 

“It’s definitely not what we’d expect of them, at least,” Four said, putting back the sandwich fourth back before picking up a different piece. 

“Have you heard anything from any of them, Four?” Hyrule asked. 

Four shook his head as he took a small bite of the sandwich. He chewed it thoroughly before answering.

“I got a text from Legend this morning, but that’s about it. He just said he wasn’t gonna be in today but that he’d still get his part of our project done.”

“Oh!!” Wind piped up. “That reminds me, I heard Revali mentioning earlier in class that Legend had texted him something similar. Though I think what he said Legend sent to him was ‘try not to suck without me’ or something like that.”

Four gave a small chuckle at that, but despite the amusing interactions Legend and Revali always seemed to have, Hyrule still couldn’t shake off his concern. 

“Have any of you seen Wild?” a voice said. Hyrule glanced up to see Flora standing behind him, one of her arms filled with books while her other hand held her lunch. “We were planning to go over the last parts for our project and talk about who was presenting what but… is something going on?”

The last part was directed specifically at Hyrule, and he figured he probably should’ve expected it. He knew he wasn’t good at hiding his emotions with his facial expressions, and Flora was a pretty keen observer (though that always seemed to apply to everything _except_ other people). 

“He’s not here today,” Hyrule said softly, trying to keep the worry out of his voice. 

Flora frowned and dropped her books down onto the table before plopping herself down into the chair beside Hyrule.

“What do you mean, he’s not here? Wild doesn’t just… _miss_ school,” she said. 

“You’re right, he doesn’t,” Hyrule agreed. He knew that for a fact, had known it since they were in middle school. Wild _loved_ going to school, and would never choose to actively miss it if it could be helped. There were a few times he had missed for mental health reasons, but those had been few and far between. And because of Wild’s healing abilities, he didn’t ever have to worry about missing because he was sick, except for those very specific times of year, but even _those_ rarely fell during the active school year. 

Besides, Hyrule knew Wild’s schedule for that. He knew very well that this _couldn’t_ be one of those times because it was only the beginning of November. Which gave Hyrule all the more reason to worry. 

“Maybe he just ate too much candy and got sick to his stomach,” Wind said, even though Hyrule could hear his voice wavering just a little. 

“Please, have you _seen_ some of the stuff he eats?” Four asked, blinking as his eye turned blue. Then he shook his head as his eye changed back to purple. “It’s not uncommon for Wild to stuff himself full of food. It wouldn’t be too far fetched that he _did_ make himself sick this time around.”

"You don't understand Four,” Hyrule said. “Wild _doesn't_ get sick like we do. Only twice a year for like... 3 or so days. Once around the beginning of January and then once in the summer, sometime between mid June and mid July. The best way it's been described is a _purge_ and it leaves him really sick and bed bound for those few days because his internal healing..." Hyrule scrunched his face up for a moment in thought as he looked for the right word. "His internal healing shuts down? Resets? I think that's the best way to put it."

“Mipha mentioned something like that to me once,” Flora said. “She explained that it’s something most healers have to deal with…” She frowned. “You said that Wild’s were normally during January and the summer?”

Hyrule nodded. “Which is why he’s not out because he’s sick. _Besides_ why would the rest of his family not be here if it were just Wild that is sick?”

He glanced up and noticed Sky and Warriors walking by behind Wind and Four’s side of the table. He caught Sky’s eye just briefly, the other teen turning away in a hurry when he noticed he’d been caught. It was a short glimpse, but Hyrule didn’t miss the flash of something like panic that filled Sky’s eyes as he nudged Warriors and they hastened their steps away. 

Alarm bells sounded in Hyrule’s mind. Sky and Warriors knew something. They had to. 

But why hadn’t they said anything? They were some of Hyrule’s closest friends, right alongside the Forresters. 

If they knew something was wrong, what would be the reason they wouldn’t tell him?

Hyrule’s eyes followed them as they sat down at the table with others from their class. Sun, Artemis, and Dusk were among them. Hyrule watched as Sky set his food down and sat beside Sun, who put a comforting hand on his shoulder. She said something to him that Hyrule couldn’t hear with the distance between them, but he could see Sky’s shoulders hunch as he shook his head. 

Warriors sat down between Artemis and Dusk, who immediately engaged him in the same type of quiet but solemn conversation. 

“You noticed it too, right?” Flora asked. Hyrule glanced around at the others at his table to notice they all were looking towards the table of the older students. 

“They didn’t say hi,” Wind said. “That’s… they normally say hi right?”

“They do,” Hyrule murmured. His frown deepened as he watched none of the older students turn to even look at them. He pushed himself to his feet. “I’m going to go see what’s going on,” he said. 

“Maybe you should wait,” Four said. “If they _do_ know something, is now really the time to find out?”

“I’m not waiting,” Hyrule said, turning away from the table and walking towards the table with the other students. 

“Hyrule, hold on,” Flora said, grabbing his arm as he walked by. He turned to her, raising an eyebrow as he did. “You shouldn’t approach them if you’re upset,” she said. “Take a second to calm down.”

Hyrule reclaimed his arm and took a breath. Flora was right of course, and he knew she spoke from experience, but that didn’t mean it still didn’t frustrate him. 

“Okay,” he said, taking another breath. “I’m gonna go ask now.”

He approached the other table slowly. Sky was the first one to notice him, lifting his head with a slightly alarmed expression on his face.

“Hyrule!” Sky called with a bit of surprise. “Hi! What’s going on?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Hyrule could see Warriors drop his head down into his hands with a groan. 

Sky was terrible at lying, they all knew this. But Hyrule didn’t want to exploit that fact right now, keeping Flora’s words in mind. It would be better right now to approach it slowly. 

“I was just wondering if any of you had heard from the Forresters today?” he asked slowly. 

“Not since last night when Twilight was texting me,” Warriors said smoothly. He didn’t look up from his food to meet Hyrule’s eyes. “My guess is their parents kept them home to help clean up after the Halloween Party last night.”

“Oh that’s bullshit and you know it is,” Hyrule said, ignoring the mildly stunned expressions he received in response to his blunt words. “You know Time and Malon care too much about their education to make them stay home for something as _trivial_ as cleaning up after a dinner party. And more than that, do you really think those three would choose to stay home for clean up duty? _Maybe_ Wild would stay, because that’s just who Wild is, but _all three of them?_ ” Hyrule shook his head. “They _like_ being here. They wouldn’t miss if there wasn’t a good reason for it.”

Hyrule watched Warriors’ eyes flash with a challenge before deflating again. There was a choice here. Hyrule knew he could continue to contest Warriors’ claim, but at this point they all knew it was false. Which didn’t help the spiraling anxiety in Hyrule’s gut. Warriors and Sky didn’t just _lie_ about things… not without a valid reason for it. Which meant that something _had_ to be wrong. It had to. 

With a sigh, Hyrule felt his own frustration drain out of him as he dropped his shoulders. 

“Please, I just want to know what’s going on,” he said softly. “I’m worried something bad happened and I just… please.”

When there wasn’t an immediate response, Hyrule looked between the two brothers, only vaguely aware of the others at the table or of the members of his own table coming up to stand behind him. 

But Hyrule didn’t pay them mind as he took in the fallen looks on both Sky’s and Warriors’ faces. 

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Hyrule asked.

Again there was no response beyond Sky not being able to hold back a near flinch on his face. 

“Oh shit, what happened?” Wind piped up from behind Hyrule. 

Warriors didn’t seem to notice Wind’s question as he met Hyrule’s eyes.

“Yes,” he said firmly before dropping his own gaze to look down at his barely touched plate of food. With a defeated sigh, he pushed the plate away and stood up. “I can’t eat anymore right now. I’m gonna go get ready for training.”

With that, Warriors took his plate and bag as he left the table. 

An uncomfortable hush fell over the group as they watched him leave. The knot of anxiety in Hyrule’s stomach had only tripled with Warriors’ confirmation that something bad had happened. 

Hyrule turned to Sky, as he opened his mouth to ask something but Sky just shook his head. 

“Please Hyrule,” he said. “This isn’t something we can tell you, and it’s not something you should hear from us.”

“But…” Hyrule started to say, only for Sky to cut him off.

“You need to hear it from them,” Sky said. “Please just… wait to hear it from them.” 

As he finished talking, Sky got up and gathered his own plate and bag and headed towards the door. As he passed Hyrule, he paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. 

“War and I were already planning on going to their house after school,” he murmured. “You should come with us.”

Sky walked away, and Hyrule couldn’t do anything but stare after him. 

**...**

Hyrule finished the rest of the day in a daze. He’d had to rely on Wind a lot more than he would’ve liked to make sure he got to their hero class after lunch. During training, he hadn’t been able to focus at all, leaving the feather he was supposed to make fly with his air powers completely grounded. 

The teacher covering the class in Time’s place gave him a mental focus worksheet instead. 

In his art elective, Hyrule had spaced out so much that he ended up leaving a huge paint blotch on his t-shirt, which he was not looking forward to removing later, but even _that_ barely held his attention for more than a second. 

His final elective of the day was the worst though. Home Economics was something he and Wild had chosen to take together, Wild insisting that it was more than cooking and that even with the cooking parts, he’d help Hyrule through it. 

But today Hyrule could very distinctly feel Wild’s absence. He was fortunate enough that all they were doing today was decorating the cakes they had baked the day prior, which was something Hyrule _could_ do, but he missed having Wild there arguing with him about the icing. 

This cake was a gift for Malon, as most of the cakes that they made in this class were. They’d talked about the design for it yesterday while the cake was baking, so it was easy enough for Hyrule to find the right icing and tools and to be able to decorate it with ease. 

The finished product was just how Wild and he had sketched out the day before, Hyrule managing to finish it right as it was time to pack up for the day. 

He’d carried the cake to the bus with extreme care, and waited anxiously for Sky and Warriors to meet him. 

The bus ride was quiet and awkward. Hyrule held the cake as close as he could without ruining it, fighting every instinct to ask more questions of Sky and Warriors. 

He’d tried, when they had met him on the bus. But Warriors had cut him off before he could. 

“Please don’t ask us Hyrule,” Warriors said. “We can’t tell you anything else.”

So he held his questions throughout the long bus ride back to his and the Forresters’ bus stop. 

Warriors led their way down the driveway to the Forresters’ house. It was a path that Hyrule had walked a hundred times, but never had it felt like it took this long before. 

Sky attempted making small conversation, obviously trying to distract them.

“Did you… make that cake in your home ec class?” he asked. 

Hyrule glanced down at the cake in its box, and gave a hum. 

“Yeah, Wild baked it for us yesterday. We were supposed to decorate it together today…”

He cut off as they reached the end of the path and approached the front of the house. 

There was a police car sitting out front. 

Hyrule felt his steps falter and come to a stop as he saw it. 

Warriors and Sky stopped a few steps ahead of him, both looking back at him with unreadable expressions - or they would be, if Hyrule could focus on anything but the police car. 

“Sky…” he whispered. “Why…”

“Just… wait until we’re inside,” Sky said, a pained look crossing his face.

“But…”

“ _P_ _lease Hyrule_ ,” Warriors said. 

Hyrule didn’t want to wait until they got inside. He didn’t want to go inside. If he went inside, that would mean he would learn what had happened. And learning what happened would mean that something _had_ happened. 

That something was wrong. 

A gentle hand touched his, over the box of the cake as another, firmer hand landed on his shoulder. 

He looked up to see Warriors and Sky both giving him a sad but comforting look. 

“We’re with you,” Warriors said, squeezing his shoulder gently. 

“Come on, we need to get inside,” Sky said softly. “It looks like it’s about to rain.”

Hyrule glanced up to see that the sky was growing cloudy with thick, heavy rain clouds. He took a breath, trying to pull his powers back. He knew his anxiety was part of the cause for the storm, but there was no way of lessening it. 

So instead, he lowered his head, looked to the front steps of the house, and nodded. 

Warriors and Sky led him slowly to the front porch. As they reached the base of the stairs, the front door opened. 

“I’ll keep an eye and ear out Link,” a familiar voice was saying. “If we hear anything, you’ll be the first to know. Just try to get some rest tonight, all of you. Oh, Hyrule…”

Hyrule glanced up to see the familiar figure of Officer Mido walking out of the Forresters’ home. 

“O… Officer Mido,” Hyrule stammered. 

“Detective now, actually,” Mido said with a small, sad smile. “Which is why I’m here.”

“Why?” Hyrule asked. 

Mido gave a deep sigh and put a hand on Hyrule’s shoulder. “I’m sorry kid, but it’s better if Time tells you.”

“People keep saying that,” Hyrule murmured. “I just want to know _what’s going on_.”

“We appreciate your help, Mido,” Time’s voice said as he appeared in the doorway. He turned too look at Hyrule, Warriors, and Sky. “You boys come on in.”

Hyrule frowned as he noticed how tired Time looked. He was dressed in clothes that he normally wore around the ranch, but they looked slightly disheveled compared to what Hyrule was used to. He had dark circles underneath his eyes and quite honestly looked like he hadn’t slept much at all.

They followed Time into the house, and Hyrule couldn’t help but notice that the house felt dark and quiet compared to what it usually did. Time led them through the house to the living room where Hyrule saw Malon, Twilight, and Legend all sitting, looking in similar states of exhaustion to Time. 

They all sat up straighter when they saw the four of them walk in. 

Hyrule didn’t pay attention to them, his focus drawing immediately to who was _*not*_ in the room. 

“Where’s Wild?” he asked.

He wasn’t expecting the reactions he got. 

Malon’s hands flew to her mouth as she tried to cover the sharp inhale she gave. Without a word, she stood up and left the room. There were faint noises coming from the kitchen as Hyrule watched the other members of the family for their reactions. 

“You... don’t know?” Time said slowly. He looked to Sky and Warriors standing behind Hyrule. “I would’ve thought you two would have told him?”

“We didn’t think it was our place to tell him,” Warriors murmured.

“Oh,” Time said. “I… thank you then.” He turned back to Hyrule, his face in an unreadable solemn expression. “Hyrule, you… may want to sit down.”

He reached out to guide Hyrule to the couch, but Hyrule pulled away.

“No!” he said. “I don’t want to sit down, I _want_ to know what’s going on. And I _want_ to know _where the fuck is Wild_?”

There was an awkward hush that fell over the group at Hyrule’s outburst. Hyrule knew why… he didn’t _have_ outbursts like this, especially not directed at Time. 

Time’s face fell with exhaustion. “I will tell you, but please just sit down first, Hyrule.”

His voice was filled with exhaustion as much as his expression was, and while Hyrule felt his own frustration building at the situation, he also could understand the tiredness Time was portraying. Deciding it was better to not keep fighting, he sighed before taking a step towards the couch, only to be interrupted before he could take a seat by Legend scoffing loudly from his seat at his piano. He’d been fiddling with the key cover, his feet tapping the pedals anxiously before he stopped and slapped his hands down on the closed cover. 

“Can we _please_ stop avoiding this? There’s no use in fucking hiding it,” Legend said without turning around. “Wild is _gone_ . His _bitch_ of a birth mother took him.”

“ _Legend, please,”_ Time said. 

“ _No Dad!_ ” Legend said, pushing himself up to his feet. “We’ve all been avoiding saying it all day, and now Hyrule wants to know what happened to his best friend and you’re still _avoiding it._ Well I’m not gonna sit here while no one can even _fucking admit_ what happened.”

With that Legend turned and stormed out the room. A few seconds later the back door of the house slammed open and closed as Legend made his way outside. 

Hyrule though only caught part of that as he tried to process what Legend’s first outburst was.

“What… what does he mean?” Hyrule stammered out. “Wild… is gone?”

The anxiety that had been building in Hyrule’s stomach all day had settled to a size comparable to that of Death Mountain. He felt his breath catching in his chest, but he needed the answer.

“ _What did he mean?_ ” Hyrule asked again when no one spoke. 

“Hyrule, please just sit,” Time said. “I can tell you but please you need to stay calm.”

“I won’t until you _tell me_!”

A small tremor shook the house as Hyrule’s control over his powers slipped. He took a shaky breath and closed his eyes.

“ _Please_ ,” he said. “Just _tell me._ It’s not true, right? Please tell me it isn’t… he wasn’t really taken by her… _please."_

He opened his eyes as he looked up. Everyone was looking at him with expressions filled with guilt and despair. 

Hyrule didn’t need to hear an answer.

“ _No,”_ he choked out. “No you’re… _You’re wrong!”_

“I’m sorry Hyrule,” Time whispered. 

Hyrule didn’t have time powers, but that didn't seem to matter as everything around him came to a standstill.

He felt the cake fall from his hands as if in slow motion. 

Legend's words echoed in his mind, circling around until they were the only thing he was aware of. 

**Wild's gone**.

**Wild's... gone?**

His chest felt like it was being constricted with the force of a hundred pythons but he didn't notice as the words kept circling. 

**Wild's gone, Wild's gone WILD'S GONE**.

Suddenly his feet were moving without his permission as he sprinted away, throwing himself out the front door and into the yard. He crashed to his knees in the grass as the lightning flashed and the sky opened up above him. 

Wild was... **_gone._ **


	2. Knowing (un)Certain Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's common ground to be found amidst a tragedy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **CHAPTER WARNINGS**  
>  **References of gender-dysphoria, living in a homophobic/transphobic/abusive household, child abandonment and endangerment, and potential references of internalized transphobia.**  
>  Nothing is mentioned in extensive detail, but just wanted to be clear with the warnings.  
> (Also warning for excessive swearing, but it's Warriors and Legend, so what did you expect?)

Warriors didn’t have time to react as he watched Legend storm from the house. He could only watch helplessly as Hyrule realized the truth that Warriors had wanted to tell him all day, but knew it wasn’t his place to. 

And he could only stand by in shock as Hyrule lashed out at Time and ran out the front door. 

There was a stunned silence as the remaining group processed what had happened. 

Time gave a long, exhausted sigh as he sat down on the couch and dropped his head into his hands. 

Warriors looked up to Sky who was standing with a look of loss of what to do on his face that matched exactly how Warriors felt. Feeling Warriors’ eyes on him, Sky turned to meet his gaze. With a sigh, he glanced back at the foyer where Hyrule had disappeared. 

“He needs someone with him,” Sky said, turning back to Warriors. “Legend too.”

“I’ll take Legend,” Warriors said. “He’s gonna need to beat something up, and I’m the best option to give him that outlet.”

“Are you sure?” Sky asked. 

Warriors nodded. “Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

Sky started to speak again, but was cut off by someone else before he could.

“I’ll go with Hyrule.”

Warriors and Sky both turned to look at Twilight, who was sitting in the arm chair placed in the corner of the room. He’d been quiet up until this point, and while Warriors would admit he was concerned about his best friend, there had obviously been more pressing matters. 

“Twilight?” Sky asked, not bothering to hide the worry in his expression. 

“Before you ask, yes I’m sure,” Twilight said as he stood up. “Like you said, Hyrule needs someone with him right now, and while I can’t exactly say why… I just have a feeling I may be able to calm him down.”

As if on cue, a crash of thunder shook the house, causing the lights to flicker. 

“May want to hurry before he summons a tornado or something,” Warriors muttered. Twilight sent him an unamused look. 

“You two go then,” Sky said. “I’ll clean up the cake and…” He trailed off as he glanced over at Time.

The older man looked up when he felt them looking at them. With another sigh, he ran a hand across his face before standing up. 

“I’ll help you Sky, then let’s get the guest room ready,” he looked at the three of them again. “I’m guessing you two are going to stay tonight?”

“If you don’t mind,” Sky said. 

“Of course not,” Time said. “Malon is probably already making dinner under that assumption.”

“Well, that’ll be good then, because I plan on running Legend through his paces,” Warriors said as he made his way to the back door. 

It was absolutely pouring outside, no doubt a result of Hyrule’s emotions causing him to lose his grip over his powers. Warriors found Legend out by the blacksmith’s shed where he was taking pieces of firewood from the pile and throwing them as hard as he could out into the yard behind the shed. 

“You know, normally you want to throw the wood _onto_ the pile, not away from it,” Warriors said as he approached.

“Fuck off, Warriors,” Legend growled as he threw another piece. 

“I’m just being honest here. It really does work better to put the firewood on the stack, not throw it all about the yard,” Warriors hummed passively as he leaned against the side of one of the other buildings, out of range of Legend’s wooden projectiles. 

“I’m so sure you’re the expert of firewood stacking, pretty boy,” Legend snapped. 

“I’m an expert on all sorts of things,” Warriors said. 

“Oh yeah, like what?”

Warriors didn’t bother to hide his smirk, glad to see Legend had walked right into his set up.

“Well, for one, I happen to know plenty of better ways to blow off steam than chucking firewood. Especially since you’re just gonna have to gather it back up later. And before you say ‘oh the ranch hands will pick it up’, do you _seriously_ think Malon will let you get off without the responsibility of cleaning up your mess?”

Legend turned to him with a glare, but after a second, gave an _almost_ defeated sigh and put the piece of wood in his hands back in its place.

“Fine,” Legend muttered, turning back to face Warriors. “What’s _your_ brilliant idea for ‘letting off steam’?”

Warriors’ smirk widened as he spread his arms out. “That’s easy,” he said. “You and me are gonna fight.”

Legend didn’t stop the bark of laughter he had at that.

“Please, that’s the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever heard. I’d rather go back to chucking wood.”

“You don’t think you can take me?”

“I don’t _care_ if I can take you. It’s a bullshit idea.”

“You’re probably right,” Warriors said. “It likely _is_ a bullshit idea, since you obviously _can’t_ take me, and I’d kick your ass in seconds if you even tried to fight me.”

Legend spun on him, his wet bangs sticking to his face as he fixed Warriors with a solid glare.

“Are you saying I’m weak?”

“I’m not saying anything. You’re the one who refuses to fight. I’m just stating there’s probably a logical reason why.”

“Fuck you,” Legend growled. “I don’t have to fight you for any fucking reason.”

He moved to storm pass Warriors, but Warriors reached out and grabbed his shoulder before he could.

“I’m doing this for a reason, Legend,” Warriors murmured. “You gotta put all that energy and frustration to constructive use or you’re gonna end up lashing out at someone else, and it’s gonna be messy when you do.”

Legend swatted Warriors’ hand off his shoulder. “Don’t fucking touch me,” he said. “I don’t care about your fucking reasons. I don’t need your fucking help.”

“Do you honestly think that you’re gonna be able to deal with this shit on your own?” Warriors asked. 

“I’ve dealt with everything else in my fucked up life on my own, why would I stop now?”

“Jesus fuck Legend, because you don’t _fucking have to_ ,” Warriors said. “We’re all going through this too. You’re not alone anymore.”

“Can you please just _stop_ with this bullshit?” Legend asked. “I don’t give a damn about any of this, and I would appreciate it if you would just leave me alone.”

“Fight me, then I will.”

“I’m not going to fight you, so leave me. _The fuck._ **_ALONE!_** ”

As soon as he screamed the last word, a blast of what Warriors could only describe as _pure force_ radiated out from Legend. Warriors was blown off his feet, flying backwards a good fifteen feet before he landed hard on his back. 

There was an eerie quiet that surrounded them as Warriors gasped to get the air back into his lungs. 

He pushed himself up to a sitting position and stared across the yard at Legend, who was staring back at him with an expression that was both shocked and terrified. 

“I… I don’t…” 

Legend looked down at his hands, both of those shaking as he held them up.

Warriors jumped to his feet and ran forward, holding his hands out towards Legend in a placating manner. 

“Legend, take a deep breath, okay?” Warriors said. “You need to stay calm.”

“What the fuck just happened?” Legend asked. “What the… what the fuck… I… I’ve never been able to do that.”

“Just stay calm, we’ll figure it out.”

“I can’t just _stay calm,_ Warriors!” Legend shouted. “Don’t you fucking get it? There is no ‘ _staying calm’._ Not when everything… _Everything_ is going to _absolute shit_!”

Warriors sighed, pushing his sopping wet hair out of his face as he readied what he wanted to say next.

Around then, the rain still continued to fall steadily, but the thunder and wind had died down, meaning Twilight had probably been successful in getting Hyrule centered enough to get his powers back under control.

“Look,” he said. “I know it seems like _everything_ is wrong right now, believe me, I do. But you aren’t gonna be able to get through this if you hold in everything bothering you and keep pushing others away.”

“How could you _possibly_ know what I’m dealing with?” Legend snapped, his voice lowering to a growl. “My _sibling_ was kidnapped by a _fucking psychopath_ last night when I was just _steps away_ from him. And now my whole family is going to have to learn to navigate through all of this and it took me lashing out at my dad to get him to even fucking _acknowledge_ that Wild is _gone_!”

“I know I can’t compare to the situation your family is currently dealing with,” Warriors said with a sigh. “But trust me when I say I’m not just pulling all of this out of my ass. _I know_ what it’s like to come out of a shitty situation and move in with a brand new family. I know what it’s like to finally start bonding with that family and to find a connection with a sibling only to have that all pulled out from under you with something going wrong.”

Legend snarled. “It’s not like Sky was kidnapped. Not really a comparison you can make with _that._ ”

“He may not have actually been kidnapped, but the way it felt to me he may as well have,” Warriors admitted. He took in a shaky breath as the memories from one of the darker times of his life pushed the way to the front of his mind. “It was my first summer with the Cielos. I’d only been with them for a few months, but in that time Sky and I had already become pretty close, which for me was a big deal since I _didn’t talk_ back then.”

“Didn’t talk?” Legend said with a scoff. “What a peaceful time that must’ve been. You sure you aren’t making this up? I can’t imagine you _ever_ being quiet in your life, considering you never shut up now.”

“Yeah, well getting thrown out on the streets when you’re _ten_ would make pretty much anyone go quiet, Legend. But right now I need you to _shut up_ and listen to my fucking story, alright?”

Legend blinked. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“It’s fine,” Warriors said, letting out a shaky breath. “It’s just… these memories… that year… It was both the best and worst year of my life, but the story of it is one I don’t share often. But I think you _need_ to hear this story.”

Warriors took a few seconds to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths. His throat was beginning to feel tight, and he didn’t know how long his voice would last with telling this story. He reached up and gripped the scarf around his neck, holding it tightly to try and ground himself before continuing to speak. 

It took a few more deep breaths before he felt ready to continue. When he opened his eyes, he saw Legend watching him with mild worry. 

“Back then, the Cielos lived in a different city. Our mom… her brother lived in that city. He… we don’t talk about him, but ever since I’ve known about him, he’s been a high profile public figure.”

_Gods, this shouldn’t have been so difficult to talk about._

“Every summer from Sky being six until that last summer when we were ten, Sky would always spend the majority of the time during his summers with his uncle. A lot of day trips mostly, but some overnight trips too. _That summer_ , Sky being absent hit me hard, just because he was the person I was closest with… but that wasn’t the worst part of it. As the summer continued, Sky started to become quieter and more withdrawn. There were nights he would come back from the day trips that he would just… have this dazed look in his eyes. He would constantly seem zoned out, or on the verge of zoning out. And he started sleeping a lot more.

“I brought it up to Mom and Dad at one point, but they just stated that Sky was just a tired kid, but…”

“You knew something was wrong,” Legend murmured. 

Warriors nodded. 

“I don’t think they intentionally were ignoring what was going on, just that Mom was desperate to trust her brother… but then the camping trip happened.”

“Twi told me Sky doesn’t like to go camping though,” Legend said. 

“He… doesn’t mind it. But he’ll only go with our parents or yours. And even then, it’s very rare where he will choose to go on any kind of trip…” Warriors paused, thinking through how to continue his story. “Okay, so look, I don’t know all the details about that trip. Sky doesn’t remember what happened. All we know is that he was attacked on some trip he went on _without_ his uncle and ended up in the hospital. What’s more is that his uncle gave permission for Sky to go on the trip, but he never asked Mom or Dad about it first, which had always been the agreement.

“Sky was gone for a lot longer than he should’ve been, and the whole time Mom was never able to get in touch with her brother or any of his contacts until she got the call from the hospital…”

Warriors felt his throat finally constrict as the memory of Sky in the hospital resurfaced. At the time, it had been too familiar - a sight he had seen only months ago when it was his twin sister in that bed. With his sister, he _knew_ he’d been the one to put her there. But with Sky… he had no reason to believe it was his fault, but Warriors could distinctly remember the feeling that he could’ve _done something_ to prevent his new brother from getting hurt. 

“What… what do you mean ‘attacked’?” Legend asked quietly. 

“Some animal attack,” Warriors answered. “I don’t know much more than that. We think it was some kind of wild dog, if only because Sky had a severe phobia of dogs for a few years… really until right around the time Twi had his first shift actually. _Boy was that a fucked up day._ ”

Legend gave him a questioning look, but Warriors waved him off.

“That’s a completely different story, and definitely not mine to tell.”

He paused again, taking another breath.

“I don’t remember much from the hospital,” Warriors forced himself to say slowly. “I just remember being so scared and worried about Sky. Mom and Dad were furious though. By the time Sky was ready to be released from the hospital, they’d already gotten us set to move. Mom had sold her practice and made contacts about setting up her new one here in this area, and Dad had cleared it all with his company… it was all ready to go.

“I remember… I remember hearing Mom… and what she said to her brother though.”

Warriors remembered being sent by his dad to find his mom and finding her in the small family waiting room. He’d almost walked in on her as she verbally tore into her brother, but Warriors had stopped himself, only to peak around the corner. 

_”Neither of you are to come_ **_anywhere_ ** _near my family again Derek._ **_Ever_ ** _.”_

_His mom’s voice had been cold as she spoke._

_“I_ **_trusted_ ** _you to keep my son_ **_safe_ ** _and you didn’t even_ **_ask_ ** _either of us if he could go on that trip with…_ **_him_ ** _.”_

_She had sneered then, sending a disgusted glare towards the man Warriors could just barely see in the corner. The man had odd, pale skin with dark eyes and white hair that washed him out as much as his white suit. Warriors had only met the man once, but he knew him from Sky’s stories about the creepy man who worked for his uncle._

_Ghirahim rolled his eyes at Warriors’ mom’s disgust, but she didn’t pay mind as she turned back to her brother._

_“You will_ **_never_ ** _contact us or seek us out for_ **_anything_ ** _, do you understand me? And you most certainly will never,_ **_ever_ ** _come near either of my sons. You have burned every bridge between us, and I will_ **_never_ ** _allow you to build those back. Now_ **_get out_ ** _and_ **_stay the hell away_ ** _.”_

“Yo, Warriors, you still with me?”

There was an annoying tap to his forehead and Warriors shook his head, shaking off the memory and looking to Legend who had apparently been tapping his forehead.

“Dude, stop fucking tapping my head,” Warriors said as he swatted Legend’s hand away. 

“Sorry, but you spaced out for a second,” Legend muttered, pulling his hand back. “Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah just… a bad memory of a really bad time,” Warriors said. “But anyway, it was because of that that we moved here. And it’s also why we won’t ever go back, not even to go see our grandparents. They usually come to see us.”

"So how is this supposed to help me work out my anger?” Legend asked after there was an awkward pause between the two of them. “It's not like you had anger issues right? You had a pretty good life it seems, despite that issue and you being thrown out on the street too."

Warriors gave a huff of laughter. 

“You don’t even know. Even before all of that stuff with Sky happened, I’d have my moments where I would just… lash out whatever or whoever I could. Except Sky, honestly. He was the first to kind of just… calmly reach me. That’s one of the reasons why, when he was taken away and when he got hurt, it _really_ hit me hard.”

Warriors gave Legend a pointed look. He didn’t meet his gaze, but Warriors could tell that Legend had already guessed where he was going with this. 

“Remind you of anyone?” he asked.

“If you’re trying to imply that I’m particularly close with Wild, I’m not sure what you’ll accomplish. Wild and I get along, but I can’t say there’s any significance to how hard him being taken is affecting me. I mean, I’ve only been with this family for like, two months Warriors. That’s _barely_ enough time to really form a big bond or whatever you’re trying to say.”

“Maybe it’s not something I’m saying,” Warriors said, walking over and sitting down under the overhang of the blacksmith shed. 

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means, maybe it’s something you’re _not_ saying.”

As he said this, Warriors tapped the base of his neck where his scarf hung. And where the charm of Legend’s necklace that Wild had given him earlier that month rested. 

Or it would rest, if Legend hadn’t been holding tight to it ever since Warriors first mentioned being hit hard by Sky being taken away. 

Legend startled a bit as he seemed to realize what he was doing, but he didn’t let go of the charm, instead drawing his shoulders in. He was pulling away, but Warriors knew how to draw him back out.

Holding up the edge of his own scarf, Warriors spoke.

“So you know I wear this scarf pretty much all the time, right?”

Legend glanced up, a slight look of mistrust in his narrowed eyes. 

“Obviously. Before I officially met you, I already knew that a lot of the other students refer to you as ‘the guy with the scarf’.”

Warriors chuckled. “Yeah, that one’s been around awhile but no sense fighting it. I guess the more important question is… do you know _why_ I wear it?”

“I just figured you had really bad fashion sense,” Legend replied wryly.

“Ha you’re fucking hilarious,” Warriors said with a groan. “But seriously… I wear it because _Sky_ gave it to me. The first day of me being with them, after his mom brought me in off the streets. It was winter… the second week of January. I didn’t have any really warm clothes, just what little the orphanage had supplied me. Sky saw and he gave me this scarf. I’ve kept it ever since, because it’s important to me. It gave me a feeling of belonging somewhere again. That someone cared about me again and wasn’t scared of me for what I could do or who I was.”

He dropped the scarf, smoothing it gently back into place before he looked back up at Legend, who was studying the necklace charm held in his hand. 

“Maybe I _am_ wrong,” Warriors said softly. “But I’d be willing to bet that’s how it was for you when Wild gave you that necklace.”

Legend was quiet for a long time, staring at the necklace charm lost in thought. Finally though, he took a breath and clenched his hand around the charm.

“When Wild gave me this…” he started. “That was… that was when Wild said that I was part of the family. It was the end of September, I’d been with them just over a month and I… _Wild called me family._ Even after I was a complete and total _dick_ to him when I first met him… he just brushed all that to the side and told me that he was willing to _listen_ if I needed help and I… _fuck.”_

Legend gasped in a shaky breath as he brought his hands up to his eyes. 

“He noticed at school that something wasn’t right and offered to help. He brought me food when he noticed I didn’t eat lunch and he offered me his clothes when Time and Malon first brought me here because we hadn’t been able to get mine from my old house.”

He paused again, a frown crossing his face.

“I went home with them and I was _instantly_ welcomed by Wild, he was relieved to see me and I just… I was overwhelmed the first few days and then…”

He trailed off, and Warriors made careful note of how Legend’s hand tightened on the necklace charm. 

“Hey,” he called softly. “Come sit down. Get out of the rain.”

Legend looked up, blinking slowly like he was coming back from a memory. He glanced up at the sky where a light drizzle still fell from the clouds. 

“I mean… it’s not like I’m not already soaked,” he said, a small grin forming. 

“Don’t be a dumbass,” Warriors said. “Malon’ll kill me if I let you get sick from standing out in the rain this long.”

Legend heaved a sigh but did as asked, settling down on the packed dirt entryway of the shed. 

“You know, you can’t actually get sick just from being out in the rain,” Legend said once he was comfortably leaned up against the wall of the shed. “Wild told me that once.”

Warriors let out a small chuckle. 

“He may not come off that way initially, but Wild’s ridiculously smart. He’s always spouting random facts like that or asking these _absurd_ questions -often in the middle of the night when the rest of us are trying to sleep.”

“Yeah,” Legend said with a small huff of a laugh. “He uh… he’s taught me a lot, since I’ve gotten to know him.”

There was another pause between them, Legend playing with his necklace charm quietly while Warriors picked up a stick and poked at the ground. 

Warriors slowly took a breath as he held his stick between his two hands. 

“I don’t want to push you to talk about it if you aren’t comfortable talking about it with me,” Warriors said softly. “But I’m wondering… maybe it would help if you _do_.”

“It’s not that simple,” Legend sighed. “It’s not something I can just talk to _anyone_ about… I’ve only talked to two people about it really. Aunt Sheik, and…”

“Wild,” Warriors supplied when Legend trailed off. “I know, which is why I’m not going to push you to talk about _that_ specifically. I just want you to _talk_ , Legend. About whatever. Just so you aren’t bottling it all up.”

“Look, I just don’t know _how_ to talk about this, Warriors. I’ve _never_ really been allowed to express my emotions to anyone or anything. Too many eyes and too much judgement aimed at me if I were to slip up… _Hell_ even when my _uncle and cousin fucking died_ my father gave me that ‘real men don’t cry’ bullshit.”

Legend gave a mirthless laugh as he ran a hand over his face. “Jokes on him though,” he muttered. “I’m definitely not the _real man_ he would want.” With a scoff he added. “I’m not even a _man_ at all, half the time.”

Warriors raised an eyebrow at the last comment, turning to study Legend a little bit closer. The other was hunched up in a ball, knees to chest, forehead resting on arms with fingers stark white against elbows. Warriors hadn’t noticed Legend’s clothing earlier, it hadn’t seemed important except now he realized it _absolutely was_. 

Legend’s clothes were normally telling of what kind of day it was. With no surprise, the clothing choice today looked thrown together without care. But even when not caring, Legend had a pattern in the clothing they chose. 

And Warriors was _certain_ it was _they_ today, because Legend _only_ wore overly bright colors on they/them days, and right now they were wearing pastel tie-dye leggings and what Warriors recognized as Twilight’s neon green lacrosse team t-shirt. 

“It’s not a male day today, is it Legend?”

Legend’s shoulders tensed as they curled in further on themself. Warriors barely noticed them giving a small shake of their head ‘no’.

“Why didn’t you say anything? Does anyone know?”

“Twilight does,” Legend murmured quietly into their arms. “We… slept in his room last night, so he was there when I woke up this morning and realized. I asked for this shirt, because I just… needed room to breathe and my clothes would be too constricting.”

“But neither of you… _said anything_ ,” Warriors said slowly. “Why didn’t you tell your parents?”

“Why do you _fucking think_ , Warriors?” Legend said, snapping their head up to glare at him. “My younger _sibling_ was _fucking kidnapped_ last night. My parents have more important things to worry about than my _fucking gender_ being a _fucking little bitch_.”

Legend dropped their head back down onto their arms.

“They’ve got too much on their plates to worry about me,” Legend muttered, barely audible over the sound of the rain falling on the tin roof above them.

Warriors pushed a breath from his lips, hoping the next words he said would come across properly. 

“I don’t know if you’ve realized it yet or not, Legend, but… as far as the Forresters are concerned, _you’re one of their kids_ . _They care about you._ And even if the worst happens and you have to go back to your bullshit birth parents, they’re still gonna be there for you. You’ll _always_ have a safe place here. And like it or not bud, they’re always gonna worry about you.”

“That’s the point though,” Legend said, lifting their head a small amount. “That ‘if the worst happens’? That’s _my reality_ . There’s no hypothetical about it, I’m going to _have to_ go back. There’s no way the Forresters will win custody, not with the team of lawyers my parents have. They’ll win me back, and then pull me from HA and I’ll never see any of the Forresters again. _That’s_ why I didn’t tell them. I can’t let myself get attached to a family… get attached to an _identity_ that I’m just going to eventually lose.”

“Your identity won’t change just because you aren’t here anymore, Legend. You’re still _you_.”

“But I won’t get to be _that version_ of me anymore,” Legend growled. “My birth parents expect a _male_ heir. The _perfect_ male heir. I already failed them once by having a weak ass power and getting placed on the sidekick track. I can’t… I won’t be _allowed_ to be anything _but male_. The way I’ve always been.”

Legend lifted their head to look out into the rain. Warriors didn’t mention the tear tracks that he could see trailing down Legend’s cheeks.

“It took a lot of thinking back, and talking with Wild, for me to understand,” Legend said softly. “Since I was about middle school, when certain things started to feel… _not right._ The way my father would refer to me as ‘son’ or ‘boy’. The way my mother was ordering me to be tailored for these… _horrid_ black dress suits. I never understood then. I was always miserable _anyway_ , I couldn’t differ from my normal _miserable_ and this new type. Until Wild explained.”

Legend gave a small laugh, the sound still holding little humor, but their eyes shone a little brighter as they continued to speak of their sibling.

“Wild admitted that he didn’t really experience any negative gender dysphoria,” Legend said. “Like, he obviously knew there were days he felt different, but there was never the pressure to… _conform to an expectation_ like I had when I started having some of the same feelings. It’s one of the reasons why I had so much trouble in the first place even taking that step to tell anyone else. I keep expecting that someone is going to force me back into that role that is only a tiny part of who I am.”

“Well I’m glad you felt comfortable enough to trust us with the real you,” Warriors said. “I know how much courage it must have taken to be able to do that.”

“Yeah well I don’t think I’m the one that’s gonna need that courage now,” Legend whispered. “I… I’m scared for Wild, Warriors.”

“We all are-”

“No, you don’t understand,” Legend said, suddenly turning their head to look straight at Warriors. “If somehow Majora _knows_ Wild is genderfluid… I just…” Legend turned back to face forward, their shoulders hunching in. “I can’t imagine Majora reacting well to it. Which means that if she acts _against_ Wild in terms of that… it’s just gonna hurt him.”

“Wild was still dressed in his Sheik costume last night at the corn maze,” Legend continued, their voice dropping. “Sheik is _known_ as a gender non-conforming super. Majora will… _she’ll know_.”

Legend’s grip on their arms tightened again and Warriors tried to think of something to say but Legend pushed on before he could.

“I can’t… I can’t _lose Wild_ , Warriors. I’ve lost others before, others who cared and who… who _saw me._ When I lost them… when I lost my uncle and my cousin… everything became _so much worse_. And I can’t… I can’t do that again.”

There was a hiccuped sob as Legend pulled their legs in closer to their body, dropping their forehead to their arms as they repeated:

“ _I can’t lose Wild_.”

Warriors watched Legend’s body shake with quiet sobs for about a minute before he finally decided his course of action. With a breath, he slowly made his way over to kneel in front of Legend’s curled up form. Gently he reached out and gripped Legend’s arms in his hands, slowly pulling them away from where they were perched on Legend’s knees. 

“Hey, look at me for a second, okay?” Warriors asked.

Legend didn’t resist the request, slowly lifting their head and blinking up at Warriors with red, tear filled eyes. If Warriors were to wager a guess, this was the first time Legend had let themself cry about this since this whole situation started. He wanted to reach out and hug Legend, but knew Legend didn’t really like full body contact like that, unless they initiated it themself. So instead, he kept his grip on Legend’s arms, allowing for that grounding touch without risk of overwhelming the other. 

When he was sure Legend was focused on him, Warriors took a breath and put all the conviction he could muster into his next words.

“You _aren’t_ going to lose Wild, Legend. We’re _going to find him._ We’re gonna find a way to let you _stay here_ , to _stay with the Forresters._ You aren’t going to lose any of them, and you aren’t going to lose any of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was _not_ supposed to turn out this way at all, but Warriors and Legend grabbed hold of the reigns and decided it was more important to talk about _feelings_ than to just fight it out like I originally intended. Which then led to the decision that "Oh, everyone needs a chance to talk about their feelings!!"
> 
> So therefore, I call this chapter/scene the "bastard scene".


	3. Knowing What Happened Then

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the only thing that can make things better is a hug from a big brother.

A hand on his shoulder. Someone saying his name? A familiar voice, but... what were they saying? 

**Wild's gone.**

The voice was closer now, more insistent. The words **almost** made sense, but Hyrule could only hear two words. 

**Wild's gone.**

"Hyrule you need to breathe, come on, you need to breathe." 

_Breathe? Was he... not breathing?_

A dull thought broke through, that he must be having a panic attack. He'd never had one himself, but he knew about them. He'd been witness to Warriors having a couple, and of course... 

_Wild_.

He'd helped Wild through plenty. Always finding a way to distract him out of the panic. But... 

Wild was... **_gone._ **

**…**

Twilight found Hyrule in the front yard, barely having made it off the front porch. The younger boy had fallen on his hands and knees, his fingers curling into the grass. Choked, sobbing breaths could be barely heard over the sound of the pouring rain and rumble of thunder.

Twilight walked up and slowly knelt down next to Hyrule, gently putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Hyrule, hey, look up buddy.”

Another shaky sob, but Twilight could tell that he wasn’t getting the breath he needed. 

“Hyrule you need to breathe, come on, you need to breathe."

Hyrule only responded with a low whine. The ground below them gave a small tremor as Hyrule’s grip on the grass tightened.

With a sigh, Twilight sat back. He wasn’t going to be able to bring Hyrule out of his panic through talking just yet, it would seem. 

Twilight took in a slow breath as he felt his powers activating. It took a second for the shift to start; he hadn’t reached the point where every shift he had was seamless yet. This time, the whole process fought him, and Twilight didn’t want to think about the _why_ of it as he increased the conscious effort to push the shift through.

Once his form settled and Twilight shook off the remaining discomfort that always came when he had to force parts of the shift, he padded over to Hyrule’s side. Slowly, so as not to startle the already panicked teen, Twilight lowered himself under Hyrule, worming his head through his arms that were still braced on the ground. 

He waited until he felt Hyrule’s arms on either side of his shoulders, the other not quite holding him yet, but seeming like he was beginning to register Twilight’s presence. Twilight huffed slightly before he gently coaxed the teen into sitting upright. Hyrule didn’t really resist, but did let out a small whimper as he registered the movement. 

Once he had Hyrule in a comfortable sitting position, Twilight took the chance to push in closer, nosing gently at Hyrule’s cheeks, trying to get him to open his eyes. 

It took a few seconds, but Hyrule finally blinked his eyes open. The mixed green and brown colors were tinged over with red and glossy from the tears that Hyrule had been crying. Twilight didn’t hesitate to reach out and nose away one of the trailing tears on Hyrule’s cheek. 

Hyrule flinched away a bit at the touch, but Twilight could feel the grip on his fur tighten and then release before slowly he could feel Hyrule’s fingers spread out through the fur. 

Twilight chuffed before moving to nose at Hyrule’s other cheek. Hyrule didn’t flinch away as readily this time, just gave another whine and tightened his grip on Twilight’s fur. 

It was a good sign, Twilight knew. He kept gently nosing at Hyrule, making small noises as he could, and letting Hyrule pull him closer as he slowly came back to himself. By the time Hyrule was able to bury his nose into the fur on Twilight’s neck, the rain around them had lessened and the wind had died down as Hyrule regained control of his powers. 

They sat like that for several minutes until Hyrule finally pulled back with a sniffle. He scrubbed at his eyes for a moment before looking up and meeting Twilight’s gaze. 

“Thanks Wolfie,” Hyrule said in a hoarse whisper. 

Twilight was glad his emotions didn’t show on his wolf form’s face like they would on his human form as he felt a twinge of hurt and nostalgia both hit at the old nickname Wild had coined for Twilight’s shift form back when he’d first developed his powers. Wild and Hyrule had really been the only two to use the name (and on occasion Warriors, but that was only when he was being an ass), and while Twilight hadn’t been particularly fond of it then, to hear Hyrule use it now brought up a lot of emotions Twilight didn’t feel ready to deal with.

No, he _couldn’t_ deal with those right now, he needed to help _Hyrule_ out first.

Twilight nosed once more at Hyrule’s cheek before pulling back and dropping his wolf form. Once back in his normal form, he reached out and gently cupped the side of Hyrule’s head at the temple, running his fingers into the hair on the side of his head.

“Hey, you back with me?” he asked quietly. 

Hyrule let out a shaky breath as he closed his eyes and nodded slowly. 

“Yeah, I… thanks.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, pulling his arm back as he opened his arms for Hyrule. The younger teen surged forward, burying his face into Twilight’s shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly behind Twilight’s back. Twilight didn’t hesitate to wrap his own arms around Hyrule, holding the other closely as he moved a hand up to the back of his head.

Sobs shook the other’s frame as Hyrule began to cry. Twilight just held him tighter, calmly running his hand up and down Hyrule’s back, even as tears pricked at Twilight’s own eyes. 

“I’m going to lose it… I can’t keep it together… I c- _where is he?!_ ” Hyrule gasped out as he gripped tighter at Twilight’s shirt. 

Twilight continued to hold him close, taking a shaky breath of his own. He wasn’t sure what to say to Hyrule over the confession, though now he realized that he should’ve known that the fear of losing control of his powers would cross the teen’s mind. 

It hadn’t been a secret among their families that Wild and Hyrule having become friends at such a young age, right when their powers were starting to develop, had given them the chance to form a unique bond - one where they acted as anchors for each other’s powers. 

Twilight knew many people who relied on others to anchor their powers. It was common among sibling pairs, friends, teammates and partners, as well as spouses or significant others. Warriors had spoken many times where Sky had to pull him back from losing control. It wasn’t a rare type of bond, but it had been shown that forming it with someone at a young age made it more… viable. 

Hyrule and Wild had rarely been without each other since they had met, and especially after their powers developed. Twilight couldn’t even imagine the fear Hyrule was feeling of losing his anchor. 

But a person never had to rely on just one person to be their anchor, which was a thought Twilight held onto as he readied to speak again. 

“You’re going to be okay Hyrule,” Twilight whispered. “You won’t lose it. You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. We’ll help you, I promise.”

“But… I can’t… I’ve never tried…”

“You _can_ ,” Twilight insisted. “I know it’s hard, but just breathe okay? Follow my breathing pattern.”

Twilight focused on taking in slow, measured breaths, feeling as Hyrule did his best to mimic the pattern. 

They sat like that for a few minutes, taking slow breaths as the rain pattered around them. 

With his wolf form still hovering close to the surface, Twilight could smell the strong emotions Hyrule was giving off. The scents of fear and helplessness hit him first, followed quickly by distress. But underlying that was a feeling of anger, which Twilight understood. Hyrule had been the last to find out when he should’ve been one of the first. 

But it was too late to fix that now. Now they needed to find a way to adjust to their new situation. 

After a few more minutes, Hyrule finally pulled away, holding to Twilight’s arms as he stared with a glazed expression at a spot on Twilight’s shoulder.

“I… I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to break down like that I…”

“Hey, none of that,” Twilight said. “You just got hit with news no one could have prepared you for. You’re _allowed_ to be upset.”

“I’m _scared_ Twi. I… he’s _gone. Wild’s gone,_ and I’ve never… I don’t know if I can keep control without him.”

“I know,” Twilight murmured. “But I meant what I said earlier. You need to give yourself more credit. You’re strong, _incredibly_ strong. You can do it.”

“You don’t have to keep saying that,” Hyrule muttered. “I know you think that about me.”

“I _know_ that about you,” Twilight said, gripping tight to Hyrule’s shoulders. “And so does Wild.”

Hyrule dropped his hands from Twilight’s arms, lowering them to his lap where he pulled at his fingers nervously. 

“Twi… you… you were there last night, right? You guys all went to the corn maze?”

Twilight lowered his hands too, not knowing how to react to Hyrule’s question as he watched the other. Hyrule was refusing to look up at him, staring intently at his hands in his lap. 

When Twilight hesitated too long to answer, Hyrule looked up at him, tears building up in his eyes again. 

“Twilight, _please_. I have to know what happened to him.”

Twilight took a slow, shaky breath as he ran a hand down his face. 

“I know, Hyrule. I… I’m sorry no one has told you yet,” Twilight said. “I… I _was_ there last night. Legend and I… we were the last to see Wild. He got pulled through one of the walls of the maze by a cast member, who… _I think it was Majora_ . We promised him… _I promised him_ that I would meet him on the outside of the maze.”

Twilight took another breath. 

“We didn’t know anything was wrong. But then Dad called me and…”

The words caught in his throat. The memories of the previous night were still raw, and Twilight hadn’t allowed himself time to dwell on it. 

“That’s when you knew,” Hyrule said, his voice small and quiet as he spoke. 

Twilight nodded. 

“Dad… he _told_ me that he had felt Majora’s powers… that he knew Wild was in danger. When he hung up Legend and I _tried_ \- _we tried so hard_ \- to find him. But we just _couldn’t_. The maze was combed through for almost an hour last night, but there was no sign of him. She just... _took_ _him_.”

Twilight looked down at his hands lying helplessly in his lap. They had been _so close_ but hadn’t been able to stop Wild from being taken. If he had just broken through the wall… he still would’ve had two strikes left. Sure, Legend would’ve gotten kicked out but…

“Twi, stop, it’s okay.”

Twilight blinked as he felt a hand grip one of his. He glanced up to meet Hyrule’s eyes, a tinge of fear there.

“You don’t… you don’t need to tell me any more,” Hyrule said softly. He sighed as he leaned away, pulling his hand back. He looked up at the sky, which was still raining softly around them. 

Twilight watched as Hyrule lowered his head with another sigh. He was gripping his hands tightly in his lap again, looking like he was gathering himself to say something. 

Finally he spoke.

“The first time I stayed over at your house after Wild awoke his time powers...” Hyrule began. “Wild told me… he told me that he had found these old newspapers your mom used to keep. All of them containing articles about Majora, specifically articles about any battles your dad had with her while she was at large. He told me everything he’d read in them… all the details about the horrible things that Majora did.”

Hyrule took in a shaky breath, and Twilight debated on if he should reach out for the other’s hands again when Hyrule decided to continue.

“He was so _scared_ , Twi. Even then, when we _didn’t_ know as much about her as we do now… he was _so scared_ that she was going to come back for him one day or _worse_ that he would turn out to be like her.

“I tried to help him. Tried telling him that it wouldn’t happen but what the hell did I know, I was just a kid. And as we got older, as we learned more about her… Wild just got more and more worried.”

Hyrule forced in another breath, and this time Twilight didn’t fight the urge to give the other comfort. He reached out his arms and pulled the younger close to him, holding him tight in his arms as sobs began to shake Hyrule’s frame again.

“And now… now… one of his worst fears has come true,” Hyrule said. He took in another breath, this one choked off with a sob as he barely managed to say “ _And there’s nothing I can do to help him.”_


	4. Knowing What to Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the world around you is falling down, look to the ones who are holding steady in the storm.

Sky didn’t know what to say to Time as they both worked to clean up the cake. He felt sad that Hyrule’s cake had been ruined, knowing that both he and Wild had worked hard on it. 

It didn’t take too long for them to clean the cake up, only some of it having splattered out of the box and onto the actual floor. 

“I’ll throw this away,” Time said as he picked up the box off the floor and stood up. “And go check on Malon in the kitchen. Would you mind going to the linen closet upstairs to get the extra blankets?”

Sky nodded silently as he turned to make his way up the stairs. 

He tried not to dwell on how quiet the house was. In all of his years of knowing the Forrester family, the house had never been as quiet as it was now. 

As Sky reached the top of the stairs, he turned left down the hall, heading for the linen closet connected to the laundry room across from Twilight’s bedroom.

But before he reached the room, his gaze trailed down the hall and landed on the door to the room at the end of the hall. 

The door to Wild’s room was closed, something that was rare as Wild always wanted to seem welcoming to others. 

Sky sucked in a breath and turned quickly to find the linens in the closet before hurrying back downstairs, not turning back to look at Wild’s room.

He was in the process of building up their traditional blanket fort when Time walked in. 

“I imagine your brother is going to critique your architecture skills when he sees this,” Time said, a small smile on his face. 

Sky couldn’t help but return the expression as he worked to tuck in another of the blankets from his collection. 

“Probably,” he agreed, “but at least I’ll have most of the structure up.” He glanced out the back window of the room and sighed at the steady pouring rain. “I imagine all four of them are going to need a way of getting warm once they come back inside. This will help.”

“Malon already has that covered,” Time said. “She had me place towels on both the back patio and in the mud room for whenever they come in. And she’s making some potato soup now that should do us all some good.”

Sky hummed in acknowledgement as he finished securing the last blanket. Once he was sure it would hold, he turned to see Time standing in the doorway, staring at the floor but with an expression that said he wasn’t actually _seeing_ what he was looking at. 

“Mr. Forrester,” Sky said slowly. “Are… are _you_ alright?”

Time looked up at him and blinked slowly before taking a breath. “I’m fine, Sky,” he said. “You don’t need to be worried about me.”

Sky knew that was absolutely not true, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he sighed and began gathering up the pillows he’d pulled out of the guest room closet. 

He worked quietly for a while, sensing that Time possibly wanted to say more, but knew he was hesitating. 

Finally though, the older man spoke.

“I’ll admit this is rough,” Time said. “And I should’ve been more upfront with all of you about it. Legend was right in saying that I’ve been avoiding acknowledging what happened.”

“I don’t think Legend or Hyrule really meant to lash out like that,” Sky said, not looking up to see Time’s reaction. “I think they’re just scared, and they don’t know how to deal with that. Honestly… we’re all really scared. Warriors barely slept last night after getting back from the maze. He actually insisted on sleeping in my room with me, which he hasn’t done since we were much younger. Mom made us go to school today, but… I know we both wanted to be here.”

“I know Twilight will appreciate having you two here tonight,” Time said. “Legend too, if Warriors doesn’t beat him up _too much_ ,” he added with a small chuckle.

Sky couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that as well, though he had a sneaky suspicion that his brother’s plan of getting Legend to fight was going to end up changing. He glanced out the window again, and let a small relieved smile form at the sight of the two sitting under the overhang of the blacksmith shop. 

“Sky, can I request something of you?” Time asked, pulling Sky’s attention from the window. Sky turned to face the older man, nodding his head. 

“Of course sir,” he said. 

Time gave him a half smile before dropping it with a sigh. 

“Sky I… I want you to know that I appreciate everything you and Warriors mean to my children. And you know that I consider you two my own children as well,” Time said. “But I just feel the need to request… well a few things actually. I don’t want you boys to get overly involved with this. I know you want to help, but the most help I want you to give is just to continue to be there for Twilight and Legend. They’re gonna need friends like you through all of this.”

“And the second thing?”

“I want you to make sure, for you and Warriors both, that you don’t take on too much during all of this. I don’t want you boys to feel like you have to shoulder the emotions of everyone, that you need to make sure to take care of us. It’s going to be a hard time, I won’t deny that. But we’re all going to make it through this. I just need you to take care of yourself too, alright?”

“I will, I promise,” Sky said. “And I’ll make sure to tell Warriors too. He’ll understand, I’m sure.”

Time clapped his hand down on Sky’s shoulder. “Thank you, Sky,” he said, dropping his hand. “Now, how about we go offer to set the table for Malon.”

Sky nodded his agreement and followed the older man out of the room. He’d been to dinner at the Forresters' enough to know the system of how to set the table properly, so he and Time made quick work of it. 

Then it was just a matter of waiting for the others to come inside. While Time went to help Malon finish with dinner, Sky made his way back to the guest room to make sure everything was set. They’d already pulled out the spare mattress from under the bed, and Sky wanted to double check that the blankets he put up around it for the blanket fort were secure. 

Once Sky was sure the fort was secure, he ventured back out to the living room where he dug into the Forresters’ movie collection to find a movie they could watch later. He knew he couldn’t choose any of their regular watching options - Disney movies and ATLA would be too harsh of a reminder of the missing member of their group. But Sky was pretty sure that at least Hyrule - and very likely Legend - wouldn’t make it through a whole movie before passing out. 

So he chose a fairly safe option he knew was a favorite Warriors and Twilight: _Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring_.

He’d just finished picking the movie (as well as _The Two Towers_ , just in case, though he doubted they would need it), when he heard Time giving instructions to who he guessed was Twilight and Hyrule coming in from the mud room. He heard Time sending the two of them up the stairs to shower and get dry clothes. 

Sky hummed as he settled onto one of the couches, checking his phone as he did. He had a bunch of unread notifications from their group of friends. Four and Wind both asking if he’s talked with Hyrule. Artemis _colorfully_ telling him that he or Warriors better call her with an update at some point or she would find creative new methods of embarrassment for them. Sun had left him a voicemail, telling him that she had all of them in her prayers and asking for him to call her with an update when he had the chance. She had ended the call and had specifically requested for Sky to let her know if there was anything she could do for him. 

Sky felt his heart skip a bit at the sound of her voice. He knew he had a smile on his face that Warriors would call “dopey”, but he honestly didn’t care. 

Sun had been Sky’s support for as long as he could remember. They’d been friends since they were kids, ever since Sky’s family moved to this area. They had only been dating for about half a year, but Sky was certain even with that amount of time that he was in love with her. 

“So what did my sister-in-law have to say?”

Sky jumped at the sound of his brother’s voice so close to his ear. 

“She, I… _She’s not your sister-in-law_!” Sky sputtered. 

“Not yet anyway,” Warriors said with a hum, coming around and plopping down on the couch next to Sky. He threw his legs up over Sky’s lap, and Sky frowned at his feet being so close but then noticed Warriors was wearing a clean pair of sweatpants. 

“You showered?” Sky asked, glancing up to see that Warriors’ hair was wet and he had a towel around his neck instead of his scarf. 

Warriors hummed as he rubbed at his hair with his towel. 

“Yeh, just enough to warm up. Legend is using the guest bath now.”

“How is he?” Sky asked quietly.

Warriors was quiet for a second before shaking his head. “Legend… is alright for now. We talked about a lot of different things. I can’t tell you what exactly, that’s for Legend to say, but I think… I think things will be better for… for him.”

Sky raised an eyebrow slightly at the hesitation as Warriors spoke, particularly on the last part as he seemed to stumble over using the “him” pronoun for Legend. 

But Sky didn’t push, knowing that it was likely something Legend would tell the others if he(?) was comfortable doing so.

Instead, Sky patted Warriors leg. 

“Well, while you were out playing in the rain for about half an hour, I got our fort set up in the guest room.”

“Did you talk to Mom and Dad?”

“Mm yep,” Sky said. “They already assumed that we were going to be staying here tonight anyway. Just asked us to keep them updated. Speaking of, I’d check your phone. Judging by the message she sent me, I’m guessing Artemis had a _very colorful_ message for you.”

Warriors groaned, but Sky could hear the chuckle underneath it. 

“I’m sure she did. Though wouldn’t she be getting updates from Sheik?”

“She probably wants updates on Twi and Legend, War. And us and Hyrule too, I would guess.”

“All our damn nosey friends,” Warriors said with a laugh. “I’ll make sure to send Arty an update. I’m guessing that’s why Sun was calling you?”

“Yeah,” Sky said, not keeping the sigh from his tone. “I’ll call her after dinner.”

“Speaking of dinner,” Time’s voice came from the kitchen, “We’re about ready to eat. Warriors, can you go check on Legend? Sky, Twilight and Hyrule went upstairs, could you go get them?”

Sky and Warriors gave their responses and made their ways to find their different targets, Sky finding himself once again going up the stairs. This time, he made sure to not let his gaze linger for too long on the closed door to Wild’s room, instead moving quickly to the door of Twilight’s room. 

The door was open as he reached it. Hyrule was sitting on Twilight’s bed, a fresh set of clothes on and his hair still damp. He was holding tight to something in his hands, and Sky had to be careful not to suck in a breath at the sight of Wild’s still-favorite plush toy, a stuffed animal of Time’s wolf form that had become really popular shortly after Time had finally defeated Majora.

Wild had had the plushie for as long as Sky had known him, affectionately naming the toy _Fluffles_.

Hyrule didn’t seem to notice that Sky had walked in, so Sky gently knocked on the door frame to announce his presence. 

The younger boy startled at the noise, looking up at Sky in surprise before relaxing when he saw who it was. 

“Hey Hyrule,” Sky said softly. “Mr. Forrester sent me up here to let you guys know dinner is ready.”

“Oh, okay,” Hyrule murmured. “Twi’s in the shower.”

Sky glanced over to see the door of Twilight’s bathroom cracked open, the sound of water running from the shower.

“Twi-” Sky said toward the door.

“I heard!” Twilight called. “Be out in a minute.”

Sky nodded as he moved over to sit next to Hyrule on the bed. 

He’d barely even sat down before Hyrule collapsed onto him. Sky automatically reached up and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him closer and into a more comfortable position. 

They sat in silence for a few moments before Hyrule sniffled.

“Sky…” he said quietly. “I… I’m sorry. For at school… I shouldn’t… shouldn’t have...”

His voice cut off with a small whimper as he tightened his hold on Sky’s shirt. 

Sky sat up a little straighter, pushing Hyrule away just a bit to look at his face. Gently, he reached up and pushed Hyrule’s damp bangs away from his face. “Hyrule, you have nothing to apologize for. You were worried, and you just wanted to understand what was going on. Really, I should apologize to you. I promise, Warriors and I _wanted_ to tell you what happened. But…”

Hyrule nodded, letting out another sniffle before dropping his head down onto Sky’s shoulder.

“I know,” he said. “I… You were right.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Sky said, combing his fingers through Hyrule’s hair. “I know it’s hard, but we’ll be okay, alright?”

Hyrule nodded against Sky’s shoulder with a small whine, which Sky almost didn’t hear over the sound of the door of Twilight’s bathroom door being opened fully. 

“I’m ready to head down when you two are,” Twilight said, his eyes tracing over the two of them and training protectively on Hyrule. 

Sky nodded and helped Hyrule to his feet, keeping his arm around the younger’s shoulders as he led him to the door. Twilight met them at the door, and Sky didn’t miss how he subtly moved to keep his body between Hyrule and the view of Wild’s door. 

They guided Hyrule down the main staircase, and as they reached the bottom, Hyrule let out a choked cry before pulling out of Sky’s grip and running across the open floor. Sky followed his path to see Hyrule reaching Malon and collapsing into her arms, burying his face in her shoulder as she wrapped her arms tightly around the boy.

A sharp breath pulled Sky’s attention back to Twilight standing beside him. 

“Hey,” Sky whispered, reaching out and gripping onto Twilight’s upper arm. “We don’t have to join them yet if you aren’t ready.”

Twilight shook his head, taking another breath. 

“No, I can handle it.”

“Twi… you don’t have to-”

“Not now, Sky, please,” Twilight said, turning and looking at him with an expression full of desperation. “I can’t… I promise. Later. We can talk later, but… I can’t now.”

“Dinner is ready,” Time called. Sky glanced up at him and the ones gathering around the table before turning back to Twilight.

His friend took a deep breath and nodded, stepping forward to join his family. 

Sky took a breath himself, trying to ground himself as he pushed back the exhaustion creeping into his bones. It had been a long day, and he knew it wasn’t over yet. But he couldn’t give over to weakness now. He needed to be there for his friends.

And Hylia willing, he was going to be.


	5. Knowing Who to Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowing who you are and showing who you are are two very different things.

Legend sat in their room, holding their ocarina and absentmindedly playing out a tune without thought of which one it was.

After hitting one sour note too many, Legend sighed and lowered the instrument. 

Their mind had been racing for hours, and even their usual escape of music wasn’t seeming to help. 

Their conversation they’d had with Warriors outside was still running through their mind, as was the conversation that had occured over dinner. 

_ They had gathered around the table, passing around the soup toppings with silent murmurs, pausing only briefly to respect Sky as he quietly whispered a blessing over their food, not loud enough for any of them to hear, but Legend didn’t have a doubt that Sky’s prayer included a plea for Wild’s safety and quick return to them. Legend had to swallow back the bitter taste in their mouth, not wanting to judge Sky for his beliefs, but also not wanting to give in to any hope that any deity above would be of any help in this. _

_ Soon enough, they all had their servings of food, and Malon gave them permission to eat.  _

_ No one seemed to have much of an appetite though.  _

_ Legend was playing with their food across their plate, their appetite turning food to ash in their mouth as soon as it hit their tongue. The sound of Time's voice broke through their thoughts and drew their attention to the older man.  _

_ “I feel I should make an apology to all of you,” Time said. “But specifically to you, Legend and Twilight. Legend, you were right earlier when you said that I was avoiding talking about what was happening. I should have been up front about it and should have properly acknowledged what happened instead of looking at this situation from an outside perspective.” _

_ Twilight had given a small nod in response.  _

_ “It’s okay, Dad,” Twilight said.  _

_ “S’okay,” Legend murmured. _

Legend shook off the memory as they took a breath and raised their ocarina back to their mouth. 

They hesitated for a moment, waiting for the notes of a song to reach them, but was disappointed to find that the music was cleared from their mind. 

They sighed as they lowered the ocarina to their lap again, gently running their polishing cloth over it as they thought to what had happened after dinner. 

They had sat anxiously through dinner, barely able to finish their soup as they had cycled through what Warriors had said to them. 

That they were  _ allowed _ to tell the others about their gender. 

But they had meant what they said, that they didn’t want to get attached to the identity they knew they weren’t allowed to keep. 

So what had made Legend ultimately decide to tell Malon and Time… they didn’t know.

They had approached Malon first, offering to help her with the dishes after dinner while Sky and Warriors had pulled Hyrule to the guest room so they could all make their calls updating family and friends. 

Legend had admitted what was going on to Malon quietly while they were washing the dishes. At first, Malon hadn’t said anything, remaining quiet as she finished washing the bowl she had in her hand. Legend had fidgeted anxiously with their drying towel, waiting until Malon dried her hands off on her apron before turning to face Legend. 

She had offered them a hug before saying " _Y_ _ ou never have to fear being rejected for your gender around me dear. You are  _ **you** _ , not some construct made by society that you’re required to conform to. I want you to remember that, and don’t ever worry about being a bother. You are important, and because your gender is a part of you, that is important too.” _

Legend had been hesitant to accept the hug, but had slowly stepped into their mom’s arms, gently tucking their head into her shoulder. 

They had held back their tears, but it was hard as Malon reached up and carefully ran her fingers through their hair. 

Shortly after, they were close to done with the dishes and Malon shooed Legend away, insisting she would finish herself and that Legend deserved to go rest. But instead of heading to the guest room with the others, Legend made their way out to the horse barn where Twilight and Time were. 

Legend couldn’t fight the mixed feelings of guilt and anxiety at their hesitancy to tell Time about their gender that day. While they  _ knew _ Time was nothing like their birth father, they still had that bit of fear in their mind that Time could react negatively to what they said.

Which is why they were glad that Twilight was there too when they approached them both as they were making sure the horses were settled in for the night. 

_ “Legend, didn’t expect to see you out here,” Time said as Legend entered through the cracked doors of the barn.  _

_ “I uh…” Legend said slowly. “I wanted to talk to you.” _

_ Time frowned, turning away from where he was tending to Epona and facing Legend. Just a bit down the row, Twilight hung up the halter he’d just taken off of Warriors’ horse Proxi and walked closer to them. _

_ “What did you need?” Time asked softly.  _

_ Legend looked down at their feet, pulling nervously at their fingers as they tried to think of what to say. _

_ “I… I don’t…” _

_ “It’s okay, Legend, you can take your time,” their dad said. _

Legend remembered the feeling of anxiety tightening in their chest before they finally just pushed the words out in a big rush, rambling through it all quickly; apologizing for keeping it hidden, but not wanting to bother the rest of the family and apologizing too for yelling at Time earlier that they didn’t really mean to lash out at him like that, but with everything…

Legend’s words had choked off then, them not being able to get out any more, but not having to as Time came and stood closer in front of them.

_ They struggled to not flinch away as they felt both of Time’s hands on their shoulders, though Time was incredibly gentle with the touch, only firming his grip once Legend had relaxed into the touch.  _

_ “Legend, can you look at me please?” Time asked.  _

_ Legend took a shaky breath, but did as asked, meeting Time’s caring gaze as they did.  _

_ “Kit, you have  _ **nothing** _ to apologize for,” Time said. “Not for hiding your gender, or for yelling at me earlier. You are  _ **allowed** _ to have and show emotions to whatever degree you are comfortable. The same goes for your gender. Who you are, what you feel, all of that is valid and  _ **important** _ , Legend. So don’t be afraid to tell us if we don't notice a change at first. Tell us if we say the wrong thing because we  _ **want** _ you to feel safe and comfortable." _

_ Time looked up, down the row of horses to the two stalls where Wild’s horses, Marshmallow and Cracker slept.  _

_ “When Wild first started to learn about his gender,” Time said quietly. “He worried about telling us too. He worried we would think it weird. To make him comfortable, we never pushed him to tell us about any gender changes, but would always leave the option open, so that eventually, Wild was able to become comfortable telling us.” Time turned back, meeting Legend’s gaze again. “I want you to know, Legend, that you always have the option to tell us or not, but that regardless, we will never think less of you.”* _

Legend didn’t try to fight the tears that time, instead surging forward and throwing their arms around Time, holding tight as they buried their face in his chest. They felt Twilight come up beside them, gently patting their shoulder as Time wrapped his arms around Legend, hugging them close. 

They had all stood like that for a long time, neither Time or Twilight saying anything, both just standing patiently and letting Legend release the emotions they had been holding back most of the day. 

After they finally came inside was when Legend had excused themself to go upstairs, claiming they were grabbing a different set of clothes to wear to sleep in.

But they knew they’d also needed the comfort of their instruments - of the music that seemed to always settle right beneath their skin, begging to be let out. 

In a way, their music was a lot like emotions, Legend thought. Except that it was a lot easier to express themself in music than with emotions.

“Hey Legend, I was going to come tell you we’re ready to start the movie,” Warriors said from the doorway, his voice jarring Legend from their thoughts. 

“Oh,” Legend murmured, jumping slightly at Warriors appearance, looking up only briefly at Warriors before turning back to the ocarina in their hand. “Uh, yeah, I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Is that your ocarina?” Warriors asked, stepping lightly into the room and gesturing at the instrument. 

“Yeah…” Legend said quietly. 

“You know Time plays, right?”

“Oh, that’s right… I forgot that he plays the ocarina too.”

“You should ask him to play with you sometime,” Warriors commented. “I’m sure he would love to have something like that to share with you.”

Legend took a breath before putting their ocarina away in its case and setting the case down on their bedside table.

“I told you I would be downstairs in just a few, is there a reason you’re still hovering in my doorway?” they asked. 

“We still have something we need to talk about,” Warriors said.

“What about?” Legend asked.

Warriors stepped fully into the room, cracking the door closed behind him. Legend tensed up, but Warriors didn’t move much further that a few feet from the door. 

“Earlier, that… wave of power you released,” Warriors said slowly. “What was that?”

“I told you, I don’t  _ know _ ,” Legend said, leveling a glare at the other. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”

“Does any of your… birth family have powers like that?” Warriors asked.

Legend sighed, turning their glare from Warriors to their darkened window, barely able to make out the light of the outbuildings through the still steadily pouring rain.

“Not that I know of,” they answered. “If anyone did, it’s been several generations. But that could be completely guessing, since I have  _ no fucking idea _ what that even  _ was _ .”

"Maybe in the next week or two we can go to the Library and see if we can find out anything in the Public Records about your family’s power variety,” Warriors suggested. “I know you don't want to go near that house right now, and I definitely don’t blame you so that might be a good place to start. Unless..." Warriors paused, shuffling a little anxiously as Legend watched him with a careful eye. “You don’t… have any family you  _ would _ feel comfortable asking, do you?”

“No,” Legend said. “Not… not anymore.”

Without thinking, they reached out and ran a hand over the top of their ocarina case. 

“Someone gave you that as a gift,” Warriors stated. “Someone that was important to you.”

“Great detective work there, Sherlock,” Legend grumbled, pulling their hand back and holding it close to their chest. They didn’t  _ want _ to have this conversation with Warriors, not now, and possibly not ever.

But then… Warriors had yet to judge them through everything that had happened between the two of them that day. 

Warriors would understand.

Legend took in a shaky breath, reaching back out and picking up the ocarina case, carefully undoing the latch and pulling the instrument gently out of its holder.

“My… uncle gave me this,” Legend said slowly. 

“Your uncle that…” Warriors’ voice trailed off, but Legend didn’t need him to finish what he was saying. 

“Yeah,” Legend whispered. “He, uh, he died... when I was twelve. He and my cousin both. This was one of the last gifts he gave me, and one of the most special. He knew I loved music, but he also knew how much pressure my parents put on me in relation to my music. This ocarina…” Legend held looked down at where they were holding it almost reverently in their hands. “My uncle gave me this because it was a small and portable instrument, one I could take with me wherever. One I could keep close and one that would be  _ mine _ .”

“Sounds like he really cared for you,” Warriors said. “Is the ocarina your favorite instrument?”

Legend sighed. “It’s hard to choose a favorite. The cello and piano were both two that I picked up on my own, and I enjoyed both of them. But… well, you can probably guess how my birth parents reacted to find out that their… son… was a music prodigy. I had a lot of pressure put on me to learn a lot of other instruments, and to perfect the ones that I played. But I never told them about the ocarina. So it’s… it’s really special to me.”

“I’m glad you were able to keep it to yourself,” Warriors said. “And I feel honored that you shared with me about it.” He added, a grin forming on his face. “Y’know, I can play the ocarina too.”

Legend lifted their head, mild surprise showing on their face. 

“You can?” they asked.

“Yep,” Warriors said. “Not to brag, but I can play a  _ mean _ Hot Cross Buns.”

Legend couldn’t help but let out snort.

“That’s not the most sophisticated song,” Legend said with a smirk. “Can you play anything else?”

“Yes I can in fact. I can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Legend chuckled as they closed the ocarina case and set it back down on their bed stand. With a sigh, they stood up from their bed and turned with a small smile to Warriors. 

“You said they were ready to start the movie?” Legend asked him.

Warriors’ proud grin softened as he nodded. 

“I did. You ready to head down there?”

Legend nodded, turning to grab the soft plush blanket from their bed as well as their pillow. But as they did, a thought came across their mind. Turning slowly back to Warriors, they took a shaky breath.

“Hey… Warriors? Could you do me a favor? Could you… not tell anyone about the weird power thing I did earlier?”

Warriors reached out and gently gripped Legend’s upper arm. “Of course,” Warriors said. "I won’t say anything without your permission. I promise.”

Legend let out a breath, nodding slowly. “Thank you,” they said with a sigh of relief. “I just… I want to figure out more about this first.”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” Warriors said. “Now,” he added, patting Legend’s arm, “let’s head downstairs and go take some hobbits to Isengard.”

“I thought Sky picked Fellowship, not Towers.”

“Same difference,” Warriors muttered.

Legend huffed a laugh and stepped towards the door, bumping their shoulder into Warriors’ as they did. 

“Come on then, Scarf Boy. Got a long trip to make, especially since you know that one does not simply walk into Mordor.”

And with that, they stepped on ahead of Warriors, laughing silently at the baffled expression on the other’s face.


	6. Knowing It's Not Your Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's easy to blame others, but easier to blame ourselves.

Twilight was barely awake. The sounds of the movie had faded into the background as he dozed against Sky, who was almost completely asleep leaning against him. 

Not that that was a surprise, Twilight had known Sky for years and he had yet to witness the other teen make it through a whole movie without falling asleep. 

This time though, Twilight couldn’t blame him. It had been a long and tiring day for all of them. 

There was a soft, intelligible murmur from the bed above Twilight’s head that he barely heard. Likely Legend or Hyrule murmuring in their sleep. Both of the two younger teens had been completely drained by the time they had settled down for the movie and had barely even made it fifteen minutes into the movie before they were both sound asleep. Twilight had peeked up at them at one point to check, smiling softly to see Legend asleep on their stomach, one arm casually thrown over Hyrule while Hyrule’s arm was reaching out towards Legend, barely grazing the fabric of the other’s shirt. It was both a heartening and also melancholic sight, since Twilight knew both of them were seeking the physical reassurance of someone else being near them. 

Now though, Twilight didn’t have the energy to sit up to check on the others, instead just listening as the soft murmurs were met with the sound of shuffling on the bed before something dropped off the edge and landed down in Twilight’s lap. 

Twilight bolted upright as he startled at the faint weight. He heard a whisper of “Twi?” come from Warriors but didn’t acknowledge it as he recognized _what_ had fallen into his lap. 

Fluffles. Wild’s favorite stuffed animal since he was just little. 

Twilight had picked up the toy when he had gone into Wild’s room earlier to get clothes for Hyrule. He had thought then that Hyrule would appreciate having something of Wild’s to hold onto for physical comfort, and he had been right in that assumption. Hyrule hadn’t let go of Fluffles nearly at all the whole evening, setting the toy down only to eat dinner before picking it back up as soon as he was dismissed from the table. 

But now that he was asleep, it would seem that Hyrule’s grip on the toy wasn’t as strong, and Fluffles had been knocked off the bed as one of the two occupants had moved around in their sleep.

And now, Fluffles was laying in Twilight’s lap.

And suddenly, every thought, every emotion, everything that Twilight had been pushing down and holding back all day was surging to the surface. 

Carefully, Twilight reached out a hand and touched the stuffed animal, squeezing it gently so that the soft lights placed inside of it lit up. 

In the back of his mind, Twilight could hear the sound of Wild’s soft giggle from when they were still children, back when Wild would sit for what seemed like hours at a time making Fluffles light up and turn back off again. 

Back then, it had tried every ounce of Twilight’s preschool patience to let Wild sit and do that. Twilight had wanted his brother to play with _him_ , to play dinosaurs, or Heroes and Villains, or cowboys… not sit and play with a light up stuffed wolf the whole time. 

Twilight remembered once he’d complained to his dad about how Wild didn’t like to play with the things he did, and his dad had calmly explained to him that Wild was still _learning_ how to play like a kid should know how, and that they just had to be patient with him while he did learn. 

Twilight remembered the confidence with which he had promised his dad that he would teach Wild how to play, and the chuckle that Time had given him in return as he had ruffled his hair, saying he was sure Twilight would be a great teacher. 

As Twilight picked up Fluffles with both hands, another memory came to mind. He and Wild were a bit older, he was seven and Wild was five, close to turning six and also getting ready to start school in an actual school soon. Malon had been homeschooling him for a while, making sure that he would be ready, but Wild was insistent that he wanted to go to a big school like Twilight did. 

It was a few nights before school was supposed to start, Twilight remembered. He’d been asleep in his bed when there was a quiet knock on the door and Wild had come in. Twilight had let the other climb up in his bed with no complaints, making sure to pull the blanket up over them as Wild had snuggled close. Twilight pretended not to notice the small sniffling sounds Wild was making until Wild had spoken up after a few minutes of silence. 

Wild had told him that he was scared about starting school, worried that the other kids would make fun of him, that they wouldn’t like him. 

He wanted to make friends, Wild had told him, but he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to. 

Twilight remembered telling Wild not to worry, that he would make a ton of friends, and if he didn’t that was just because all the other kids were dummies (Wild had giggled at that part, knowing it was a word that Malon would get onto them for using). Twilight had then told Wild that he didn’t have to worry about friends, because Twilight was gonna be there for him. He was his big brother, and he was gonna stick with him through everything. 

It was a promise Twilight had reinforced time after time again. Anytime Wild got worried or scared, Twilight made sure to remind him he was there, that he wasn’t going anywhere. 

It was a promise Twilight had kept. Had kept until last night, when he hadn’t been able to do _anything_ when his youngest sibling was taken away from him. 

Twilight’s breath hitched as he came back to himself, realizing he was still in the guest room of his house, Warriors and Sky on either side of him. He was holding Fluffles in his hands. 

And Wild was gone. 

Suddenly it was all too much for Twilight. He could hear Warriors saying something to him, could feel Sky’s comforting hand on his arm, but none of that was registering for him as he pushed himself to his feet. He may have made some excuse about getting water, he didn’t really know as he forced his feet to carry him out of the room. 

He didn’t know how many steps he was able to even take before everything finally came crashing down, and Twilight was powerless under the weight of it all. 

**…**

Warriors wasn’t sure what to do as Twilight froze at the sight of Fluffles in his lap. 

He tried calling to him, tried to get his attention, but all he managed to do was rouse Sky, who joined him in his worry as they weren’t able to pull Twilight from the shocked state he seemed to be in. 

Which meant neither of them were able to do anything when Twilight suddenly stumbled to his feet, barely choking out some excuse about getting water that both Sky and Warriors knew was false. Their guess was only confirmed when they heard a soft _thud_ sound outside of the guest room door only moments after Twilight had hurried from the room. 

Warriors was quick to jump to his feet, pulling Sky up with him and sparing the two sleeping figures on the bed only a glance before he and his brother rushed out of the room. 

Neither of them were surprised to see Twilight fallen on his knees only steps away from the guest room entrance. Their friend was hunched over, no doubt holding his lost sibling’s prized stuffed animal close to his chest as his shoulders shook with quiet sobs. 

Warriors felt his own steps stutter at the sight, and he could tell Sky’s did too when his brother reached out and gripped his arm tightly. 

He was at a loss of what to do. Warriors had never seen Twilight so completely broken. It just… wasn’t _right_. Twilight was supposed to be steady, a constant support. To see the one Warriors had looked to for support so often crumble…

But that was probably it, _wasn’t it_? Twilight always was there to provide support for others, which meant that he likely hadn’t had a chance yet to process his own emotions over everything that was happening. 

Over… over his youngest sibling being taken from him.

“Sky, could you go make some tea maybe?” Warriors whispered. “I’m gonna try and get him to the den. I think that’ll be the most comfortable place.”

“Of course,” Sky said. Warriors could tell his brother had already reached a similar conclusion that he had, and was silently agreeing that they needed to get Twilight somewhere safe and comfortable so that he could properly have the chance to work through his own emotions. 

So as Sky quietly made his way around to the kitchen, Warriors carefully approached Twilight, kneeling down in front of him with a gentle hand on his shoulder that Twilight barely seemed to even notice. 

“Hey bud,” Warriors whispered. “Let’s get you somewhere a little more comfortable, okay?”

Twilight didn’t respond beyond a very shaky nod as he curled in more on himself. 

Warriors gave a small sigh as he squeezed Twilight’s shoulder before moving his grip to his biceps, gently pulling up to coax the other to his feet. Twilight followed without much of a fight, but remained curled in on himself as Warriors moved to stand beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder to hold him steady as he guided him across the house to the den. 

It was just a few short minutes after Warriors had managed to get Twilight comfortable on the couch that Sky came in, three steaming cups of tea balanced carefully on a serving tray. 

“I brought some tea,” Sky said softly, more for Twilight’s benefit than Warriors as he placed the tray carefully on the coffee table before sitting down on Twilight’s side that Warriors wasn’t currently occupying. Warriors could see Sky holding back disappointment that Twilight barely even seemed to acknowledge him. 

Instead, Twilight was sitting with his legs pulled close to his chest, his forehead resting on his knees. His body still shook with silent sobs, and at this point Warriors didn’t really know what to do beyond just let him cry. He’d wrapped a blanket around Twilight’s shoulders, but even that seemed to have gone mostly unnoticed. 

A movement in the corner of his eye drew Warriors attention as he turned to look at his brother. Sky had been waving to get his attention, and now that he had it, lifted his hands to sign something. 

_Has he said anything?_ Sky asked.

Warriors shook his head, glancing to where he had his hand gently resting on Twilight’s back, hoping that it would provide some kind of comfort and reassurance that Twilight wasn’t alone with this. 

Sky apparently didn’t need Warriors to say anything more, as he just sighed and leaned his weight into Twilight. 

“I’m sorry Twilight,” Sky murmured. “I wish there was more we could do to help you. But we’re here for you, okay?”

A muffled voice came from where Twilight had his face hidden in his arms that were still clutching to Fluffles. Warriors and Sky exchanged frowns when neither was able to understand what Twilight had said. 

“We didn’t quite get that, Twi,” Warriors said softly, leaning his head closer to Twilight’s. “What did you say?”

Warriors was barely able to dodge as Twilight’s head snapped up suddenly. He leaned back in surprise as he was faced with the full force of Twilight’s glare. The other’s eyes shone in the dim light of the room, and Warriors wasn’t sure if it was from the tears still streaming down his face, or if it was from Twilight’s wolf side riding a little too close to the surface. From the way that Twilight seemed to snarl his response, Warriors was tempted to say the latter. 

“I asked _who was there for Wild_ ,” Twilight said, his voice filled with anger, but Warriors could tell it wasn’t directed at him or Sky. 

“Twi…” Sky started softly. 

“No, _don’t you get it_ ?” Twilight snapped. “I _wasn’t there for him_ . I promised him that I would be, that I would stick with him. _But I didn’t_.”

Twilight took in a shaky breath.

“She took him,” he said, his voice growing quiet, the anger fading to something akin to hopeless desperation. “I wasn't even ten feet away from them and she... She pulled him away. Nothing seemed wrong, nothing was odd, and she just... _She took my youngest sibling out from under me_."

There was the sound of a choked back sob as Twilight brought a hand up to try to hold the noise back. 

“She took him, and _I did nothing_ ,” he said with a sense of finality. Twilight hiccupped a breath, his shoulders hunching forward again as sobs shook his body. 

"You didn't _know_ Twi,” Sky said, reaching out and wrapping an arm around the other. “You didn't know this would happen at all."

"No one was ready for this,” Warriors jumped in. “Not you, not Legend, not even your _dad_ . This was something no one was ready for. _None_ of your family is to blame _, do you hear me? None of you.”_

“I could’ve gone with him,” Twilight muttered. “I _should’ve_ gone with him.”

“What, so Majora could take you too? Or worse, _kill you?_ ” Warriors argued. 

“You know she would’ve, Twi,” Sky whispered. “You would’ve just been collateral damage, and you _know_ she’s not above leaving that behind.”

“I… I know. But… I _should’ve helped him._ ”

“Twilight, look at me,” Warriors said. He waited as Twilight slowly shifted to look at him before reaching out and holding his shoulders tightly. 

“Twi, I need you to listen for a minute, okay. Seriously listen.”

When Twilight gave him a small nod of agreement, Warriors squeezed his shoulders before taking a breath. 

“Twi, you need to understand, this is _not_ your fault. And we aren’t going to let you blame yourself for it.”

Warriors sighed, dropping his gaze slightly for a moment before looking back up and meeting Twilight’s teary gaze. 

“You didn't let me hold myself responsible for what happened to Lana,” Warriors said, his voice cracking at her name. He could feel tears building up in his own eyes, but he fought them back as he made himself continue. “You told me time and time again that it was not something I could have controlled, that there was nothing I could’ve done to stop it. I’m telling you the same now. I’m not gonna let you blame yourself for something that was in no way your fault.”

“That _wasn’t_ your fault,” Twilight said softly. “The horses got spooked.”

“I _know_ Twi, but that’s my point. I couldn’t stop the horses from getting spooked nor could I keep Lana from being thrown. It’s the same way that you couldn’t have stopped Wild being taken. We knew the actors had permission to touch us. It was dark, and so you and Legend couldn’t have been able to tell if she was an actor or not.”

Warriors pulled back, dropping his hands and taking a breath, and Sky took that moment to step in.

“You had no possible way to know it was her,” Sky said. “You’d never met her, never smelled her scent, and even if you could’ve been able to see in the dark, you still wouldn’t have been able to have known it was her.” 

“None of you had any warning,” Warriors said. “It could have happened to any one of us that went into the maze with Wild. It could have been one of us that he was pulled away from. It hurts, it hurts _a lot._ I know it does, but you have to understand, _it is not your fault._ "

“But that’s just it, War. It _wasn’t_ any of the rest of you. You guys weren’t _there_ . You didn’t hear how _scared_ Wild was,” Twilight said. “He hadn’t even wanted to go to the maze in the first place, and I pushed him into it. _I told him he would be okay._ Even though I knew Wild doesn’t _like_ stuff like that.”

He got quiet for a minute, staring out at the definitely cold tea on the table. 

“Wild’s scared of the dark,” Twilight murmured, barely audible. “He’s always been scared of the dark. What if… what if she keeps him locked in the dark?”

“Twi, you can’t…”

“Can’t _what_ Sky?” Twilight snapped, his head whipping around to glare at the other. “Can’t start thinking like that? Thinking about what absolute _fucking_ _hell_ she’s going to put my youngest sibling through? The sibling I _promised_ to keep safe and _didn’t?_ ”

Warriors grabbed Twilight by the shoulders and spun him back around to face him. He gripped his shoulders tightly and shook him roughly. 

" _E_ _nough_ Twilight!,” he said, a small growl in his voice. “You need to realize that _everything_ that happened was on _her_ ! You didn't know this would happen! _Yes_ we shouldn't have pushed him to go with us into the maze, but we did. We did something really stupid in pushing him into going, but _you are not at fault for this_ . It's all on her. It’s all on _Majora.”_

Warriors loosened his grip a little before pulling Twilight into a crushing hug. 

“I know you’re feeling lost and desperate, and trying to make sense of everything that’s happening,” Warriors whispered in Twilight’s ear as he held him. “But please, _please_ don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault.”

There was an added weight added to the hug as Sky leaned into Twilight’s back, holding him just as tightly, Warriors would guess. 

“And please, Twi,” Sky said, just as softly. “Don’t hold this on your shoulders. You have your family. You have Hyrule. You have _us_ . You don’t have to bear this pain alone. You _aren’t_ alone.”

There was the sound of a choked sob and Warriors felt Twilight’s shoulders shake as he began to cry with renewed vigor. Warriors just held him closer, and let his best friend cry as he closed his eyes against the tears himself.


	7. Knowing You Cannot Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a hard truth to except that things may not turn out okay.

It was about ten minutes later that Twilight finally started dozing. After crying pretty intensely for the first few minutes, he’d settled to small, hiccuping sobs that faded out to occasional sniffles as Twilight remained curled up against Warriors’ side, Fluffles clutched tightly to his chest. 

It was at that point Sky had gotten up to go reheat their tea. While reheated tea wasn’t the best, it was better than cold tea, and also better than wasting it, in Sky’s opinion. 

He was still in the kitchen when Time stormed through, phone in hand and not even noticing Sky’s presence as he stepped out onto the back patio.

Sky had been tempted to follow him, hoping it was someone calling with news of Wild, but he held himself back as he heard what Time first said into the call.

“ _Hello, Clarice. I’m Link Forrester, retired hero and on the payroll for the Council. I’d like to get an answer for something that I should have been informed of._ ”

Sky paused, realizing it wasn’t someone calling Time, but rather that it was Time making the call. He sighed, the small hope that there would be news of his missing friend withering when he overheard the next words out of Time’s mouth.

“ _I’d like to know when I would have been informed of Majora’s escape._ ”

If he had been holding the tray with their tea on it at that moment, Sky was sure he would’ve dropped it. As it was, Sky couldn’t stop the small gasp that escaped. 

Because he hadn’t thought about that… they hadn’t known to be on alert for Majora even though they _should’ve been_. Even if they had wanted to keep her escape a secret from the public, Time at the very least should’ve known.

It was with shaky hands that Sky carried the tea tray back to the den, not letting himself listen in on any more of Time’s phone call. 

When he rounded the corner from the kitchen to the den, he wasn’t surprised to see that Twilight had fallen asleep on Warriors’ shoulder. Warriors had pulled the blanket around their friend a little more firmly, an old, soft quilt made by Twilight’s grandmother, if Sky remembered correctly. 

Warriors looked up at him when he heard him enter, and Sky immediately could tell that his brother knew something was wrong. With a sigh, he gently set the tray down and reached for his own cup of tea (sweetened with natural honey from Agitha’s Farms), taking a careful sip as he waited for Warriors’ building question.

He didn’t wait long.

“Are you okay? You look really shaken,” Warriors whispered, moving to grab his own cup of tea (sweetened with only a small spoon of sugar, which Warriors insisted was sweet enough even though Sky knew that Warriors would definitely enjoy his tea sweeter if he would only try it). He was careful not to jostle Twilight as he moved, though the other still let out a slight whine at the movement. 

“I’m fine,” Sky murmured over his cup. “I just… I overheard Mr. Forrester on the phone.”

“News about Wild?” Warriors asked eagerly, his voice rising slightly as he did.

Sky shook his head. “No… this was a call Mr. Forrester was making himself.”

“To who?” Warriors asked. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“He…” Sky hesitated, taking another breath and another sip of his tea before continuing. “He was calling the Council’s office. He… wanted to know why he hadn’t been informed about Majora’s escape.”

It was quiet for a moment after that, just the faint sound of Twilight’s breathing and the pattering of rain on the windows. If Sky strained his ears hard enough, he was sure he probably could’ve heard Time speaking on the phone outside, but Sky felt certain he had heard enough. 

He let Warriors break the silence. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” was what his brother responded, and Sky couldn’t help but agree. 

“We _weren’t_ informed, were we?” Warriors asked, looking up at Sky with a questioning gaze. 

Sky shook his head silently. 

“ _Why_ ?” Warriors asked. “Did they not… surely they _knew_ she was gone. So why wouldn’t they have let people know? At least they should’ve let Time know.”

“I don’t know,” Sky murmured. “That’s what Mr. Forrester was calling about. He wanted to know why.”

Warriors took in a shaking breath, glancing down at Twilight still sleeping soundly against him. 

“We’ll have to tell Twi in the morning,” Warriors said. “And Legend and Hyrule. I don’t want to keep this from them. But… I also don’t know if Time would want _us_ knowing, either.”

“We do know though,” Sky said, leaning his head back against the wall behind him and closing his eyes, the feeling of all the stress and emotion of the day starting to press down on him, making his ever-present tiredness even more evident. “If we know, then they deserve to know too.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Warriors said, his voice trailing off. He was quiet for a few moments before taking a breath.

“Hey… Sky?”

“Hm?” Sky lifted his head, opening his eyes to look at his brother, though he found Warriors wasn’t looking at him, rather was gazing out the window.

“This… all of this…” Warriors said slowly. He turned to look at Sky, meeting his gaze. “We’re… it’s gonna be okay, right? In the end?”

Sky closed his eyes again, taking in a shaky breath. 

“I want to hope it will be War,” Sky said. “I really and truly do. But… it’s _Majora_. There’s… from the stories I’ve heard and read… there’s no guarantee of being _okay_ when it comes to her.”

Warriors let out a sigh, turning to face the window again. 

“I thought as much,” he murmured. “I just… I don’t think I can handle losing someone again. Not so soon after…”

 _After Lana,_ Sky’s mind supplied when Warriors didn’t finish. It hadn’t been quite a year yet since she had died, but Sky knew that the wounds of losing her were still very present for his brother. 

With this loss on top of that one…

“And it’s different this time too,” Warriors said, pulling Sky’s attention back to him. “Lana… Lana was incredibly special, and she really did mean the world to me, but this time… this time it’s _Wild_. Wild… Wild’s basically our little sibling too, and I just…”

“I know,” Sky whispered, turning his head to stare at the wall in front of him. 

He had known the feeling since the night before, when Warriors had finally arrived home and had broken down scared and crying in his bed while he tried to explain what happened. 

He’d known the feeling that morning, when he and Warriors had done their best to avoid Hyrule because they didn’t know how to face him when he didn’t _know_ yet. 

He had seen the feeling in the expressions of everyone he’d interacted with that day. Had known the feeling settling deep in his soul as the realization that all of this was _real_ \- that it wasn’t just a messed up dream - had finally reached him.

It was a feeling of dread. A feeling of anxiety. A feeling of fear. 

A feeling of darkness that may never be chased away by light. 

Because it was a feeling of knowing that there was a very real chance they would never see Wild again.


	8. Knowing You Did Not Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A phone call leaves only a little relief behind, more answers are wanted now.

Time lay in bed looking up at the ceiling while he listened to his wife’s slow and steady breathing in her sleep. His sleep evaded him completely, it had for the last hour and a half. He’d heard the boys talking downstairs earlier about everything that had happened but let them be as he needed time to process all of this himself.

Legend’s outburst earlier when Hyrule, Sky, and Warriors had arrived had caught him off guard and he realized distantly what he’d  _ done _ in regards to the situation. It hurt having it thrown into his face at the time, but looking at it now he realized how he was handling it. Legend accepted his apology but he could tell his newest child was still  _ somewhat _ upset with him for it, despite the conversation they had in the barn. But, this was something that he had to work through himself, by making it up to Legend and Twilight both.

A shaky breath was pulled into his lungs and he brought his right arm up and draped it over his eyes, covering them fully. He had initially treated the whole situation with the clinical and methodical process that had been ingrained from protocol and the  _ many _ cases he’d assisted with over the years. He had treated his  _ own child’s _ kidnapping like he was supposed to be  _ indifferent _ to the situation and he hadn’t realized exactly how  _ much _ it left him with a dull ache until he had it ripped open  _ raw _ by what had been said and happened.

Again, he  _ had _ made a start with the apology at the dinner table to both his kids and all three of the other boys, making it clear that he  _ was _ sorry for how he’d reacted. It also helped when Legend had come out to him and Twilight in the barn after dinner and told him about their gender and some of the fear that had been eating at them. He wasn’t upset with his middle child, not for something as important as this, on top of the situation already at hand.

Being upset with how Legend handled it would have been horrible anyway, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind until then. Wasn’t, wouldn’t, and  _ couldn’t _ be upset with Legend.

Hyrule’s outburst had caught him off guard too, which looking at it now with time on his hands, was more than understandable. The teen had been best friends with Wild since they were little, 8 to be precise, and were rarely seen without one another unless it was a family only event. Hyrule was practically adopted into their family as much as Wild had been the same with Hyrules parents.

They still needed to be told everything too, Wild had been practically adopted into the Harkinian family like Hyrule was practically adopted into their own..

_ This was a mess. _

A soft growl of frustration left his mouth and he pulled his arm away and turned on his side to face his sleeping wife. She’d been exhausted, had barely slept the night before, and tonight it still took her near an hour to fall asleep. There were faint bruises under her eyes from the lack of sleep and he reached out and gently caressed her left cheek, sliding his thumb under her eye.

She turned her head slightly into the touch and sighed in relief before settling further into the covers and half hiding her face into the pillow. Time pulled his hand back and lay there for a few long moments before he closed his eyes and started to make an attempt to sleep.

That didn’t last long however as something had been nigling at the back of his mind for the whole day and just as he was nearly asleep it hit him like a freight train. His eye snapped open and he lay there wide-eyed for a moment before he carefully and quietly got out of his bed. He needed to leave the room for the call he needed to make, probably leave the house itself and stand out back.

Time grabbed his phone off the side table and a housecoat before he shut the bedroom door behind him. He was down the front stairs and out the back door onto the patio by the time he’d dialed the number he was intent on. He didn’t even notice the light over the stove being on as he walked past it, nor the shocked teenager watching him.

It didn’t take long for an operator to answer.

_ ”Hello, this is the Heroes Council Alert and Emergency Services line, My name is Clarice, how can I help you tonight?” _ The young woman sounded a little  _ too _ chipper for the time of night that it was where the Council building was located, as well as the situation that he was about to bring up.

“Hello, Clarice. I’m Link Forrester, retired hero and on the payroll for the Council. I’d like to get an answer for something that I should have been informed of.” Time’s voice was clipped, but he was holding himself back from snapping at the girl, she was innocent in this so far. His eyes were locked out over the ranch, rain still pattering on the ground around the patio.

“ _ U-Uh, O-Of course sir. What can I search for, for you?” _ Clearly she was taken off guard with his tone, but he could tell she was at least taking him seriously. He heard the sound of a keyboard being tapped faintly on her side.

“I’d like to know when I would have been informed of Majora’s escape.” 

There was a sharp inhale from the young woman’s side of the line and something hit the floor that she’d clearly knocked off her desk. “ _ I-I’m looking that up right now sir. Please give me one moment. _ ”

“I have all night Clarice.” The air was cool and there was a breeze on his face that wasn’t entirely uncomfortable, but it would chill him within an hour. But he was telling the truth, he  _ did _ have all night to wait for an answer.

There was a long series of clicks and taps that he could hear over the speaker as well as her soft murmurs as she worked through a backlog of information to find what he was looking for. About 15 minutes into the call she spoke up, addressing him directly with hesitation in her voice. “ _ Mr. Forrester? _ ”

“Yes?” His attention sharpened as he waited.

“ _ I have to patch you to my supervisor, I’m not authorized to get into those files but Mr. Hummin is expecting the call and hopefully, he has the answers you are asking for. _ ” Time could hear her swallow nervously and he sighed softly as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

“Go ahead and patch me through. Have a good night Clarice, thank you.”

_ “Y-You’re welcome sir, I’m sorry I wasn’t of more help. It will take a moment for the call to go through so please don’t hang up. I hope you get your answers sir, good night.” _ There was a click as the call was switched over and there was a moment of silence before the phone started to ring again. Four rings and the phone was picked up and an older man’s voice came through, instantly setting Time’s teeth on edge.

“ _ Hello, Mr. Forrester, Clarice informed me that you had a question? _ ” Mr. Hummin’s voice was strident and Time could just  _ tell _ that this call would be very unpleasant until it was over.

“I do, yes. Why wasn’t I informed of Majora’s escape?” Nothing was said for a few moments, silence stretching long and to a very uncomfortable point for the man on the other end of the call.

“ _ Majora? She’s still behind bars Mr. Forrester. You would have been the first to know, in fact you’re one of the first five individuals to be informed.” _

Time inhaled slowly through his nose and let it out slowly before he responded, slowly and clearly. “Funny, I know she isn’t there anymore because she kidnapped my youngest child, used their phone to call their mother, and taunted me when I reached the location she took them from.”

_ “Sir, I’m looking at the paperwork documented in the system currently. It says she’s still in the facility within the high priority cell blocks.”  _

“How current is the paperwork Mr. Hummin?”

_ “Within the last few days. Dated the 28th of October.” _

Time could practically  _ smell _ the lie from here. It took an effort to shove down on the urge to growl at the man like the wolf in him was begging to be able to. “I don’t buy that. I  _ know _ Majora is free because when I arrived at the place she took my child from me. Her scent was  _ all _ over the place. She’d clearly been planning this for some time as her scent doubled back over itself several times. So, I ask again.  _ Why was I not informed of her escape Mr. Hummin?” _

Sputtering noises erupted from the other end of the line and Time fixed his gaze on one of the hedgelights that were along the edge of the patio. For once he wished he had a more offensive kind of power, being able to set something on fire or freeze it solid would be a goddess-sent gift right now. Mr. Hummin obviously was floundering for an answer that he was holding back or didn’t have for him either.

The other man cleared his throat before he spoke again. _ “Mr. Forrester. The most recent paperwork still clearly states Majora as being within the Prison, but I shall look into this matter and have one of the secretaries call you and patch you through to someone else when we have a definitive answer for you in the morning. _ ”

“I would like an answer  _ tonight _ Mr. Hummin.” His temper was drawing shorter with each word that came out of the man's mouth. Hummin was hiding something, it was obvious enough his own kids would have seen through it.

_ “I cannot give you the answer you seek right now Mr. Forrester.” _

“Then put me through to someone who  _ will _ give me a straight answer damnit.” The threads of his patience were fraying as he snarled that out.

It finally broke the other man’s own composure, clearly being aware of his abilities as a shifter, his voice was shriller when he finally spoke. “ _ G-Give me a moment Mr. Forrester. I-I must see if someone is awake at this hour to get you an answer tonight.” _

“Good.”

There was a few more minutes of silence only punctuated by a few muffled taps and clicks of a keyboard.  _ “Mr. Forrester, you’re in luck, Mr. Dragmire is awake now and willing to take your call. Good night.” _

Before Time even had the chance to say something in return, there was a click and the sound of the phone ringing again on the other end. He took in a slow breath, reining in his temper as much as he possibly could before he snapped again. The rings took a little longer to be answered this time, but when it was picked up, the man’s voice on the other end was gruff and tired sounding.  _ “Good evening Mr. Forrester, Kenneth told me you wished to have a question answered about Majora.” _

Time’s voice was tight and controlled at the somewhat nonchalant manner he was addressed, but he put it up to the other being exhausted. “Yes. Mr. Hummin was trying to inform me that Majora was still within her prison cell when I know for a fact that she isn’t.”

_ “Could you elaborate for me? Kenneth did not inform me beyond you having a question.”  _ There was a tone of interest in the others' voices now, at least he had someone's attention for the issue at hand.

“Majora took my youngest child last night while they were out with a group of friends. They were in a corn maze and they were separated from the group by whom they originally believed was just a cast member. The only reason I knew what had happened was because I felt Majora use her powers. She was close enough that it was very easy to tell who it was.” Time rubbed at the side of his face with a deep sigh. “While I was trying to get a hold of my oldest, my wife was called from my youngest child’s phone. Majora spoke to her and taunted us with a picture after she hung up.”

The other side of the phone call was quiet for a moment before Ganon spoke again.  _ “I see. Be rest assured Mr. Forrester, I’ll look into the matter personally and get you the answers you seek as the report that I am currently looking at is dated for the 28th as well. I live near the prison she is supposed to be held in and I will check in on her come visiting hours in the morning. As soon as I have an answer for you either way, I will call you back myself and update the system. If this is a falsely reported oversight, I will take care of the situation in full and locate the individuals or groups that are responsible for watching her.” _

Relief filled Time’s frame and his shoulders slumped slightly, it wasn’t the answer he  _ wanted  _ to hear, but at least it was a step in the right direction. “Thank you. I appreciate that you’re willing to do this yourself. I just want answers and the local authorities are doing their best to find what they can as well here in Castletown. Anything you can do to help is appreciated.”

_ “Of course. Try to get some rest Mr. Forrester. Keep in mind, if this goes the way you have described to me, you may be called back on to active duty until she’s detained once again.” _ Ganon warned.

Time nodded to no one in particular as he took another deep breath and he moved to sit down on one of the patio chairs, legs aching from tension. “I understand, I’m the only one who can actively fight her off. I’ll speak with you when you have a free moment tomorrow then.”

_ “Indeed, your number is on file so I’ll contact you one I have the chance, good night Mr. Forrester.” _

“Good night, Mr. Dragmire.” The dial tone beeped in his ears for a few seconds before he pulled the phone away and shut off the screen. He tucked his phone into the house coat's pocket and leaned forward to hold his face in his hands, elbows propped on his knees. 

Bitterness was the only thing he could taste in the back of his throat now. The secretary Clarice was just doing her job, and then Hummin  _ royally _ upset him, but at least he’d have a concrete answer come morning from Ganon. It still hurt that he  _ knew _ that she was free with how she’d taunted them. Right now he just wanted to know  _ why _ he wasn’t informed of her escape and  _ why _ they hid it from the public. Majora was and is a threat to the general public, even to fellow supers.

Time was so lost in his mind, thoughts swirling in a messy spiral that he didn’t hear Malon call his name nor her approach until he practically jumped out of his skin when she touched his shoulder.

“Link, it’s just me dear.” Malon settled her hand on his shoulder a little more firmly once he registered that it was her. “You weren’t in bed.”

Time looked up to his wife and leaned back in the patio chair, looking out over the pastures of the ranch once more through the thick sheet of steady rain and he frowned faintly before he murmured. “I couldn’t sleep, and I realized that I was never informed of Majora’s escape.”

Malon inhaled sharply at that and she pulled one of the chairs over to sit next to him and she took one of his hands in hers. “No we weren’t… Did you find out why?”

“No, not yet at least. Mr. Dragmire is going to be checking in on the situation since he lives near the prison she was at. Apparently she was still registered as being safely locked in her cell on the 28th.” Time looked over to see Malon’s lips pressed firmly together, her eyes fixed on the barns down the footpath. 

“That’s clearly a lie Link…” 

“I know. It’s why he’s looking into it. He wants to know why the guards lied and falsely reported what happened. He did sound annoyed over learning that there is a possibility of a false report having been made.” Time rubbed at his face with one hand and looked over to her, exhaustion lining his face as he watched her. “I just want to know  _ why _ they are hiding it from the public. She’s an enormous threat to civilians. So…  _ Why _ ?”

TIme could tell that Malon was speechless for a few moments while she gathered her thoughts. He let her. It was quiet outside and he couldn’t hear the kids at all now, meaning they were probably sleeping or even eavesdropping but that wouldn’t really matter when they were going to be told anyway. 

“Link… What if it hasn’t been a few days since she escaped? What if it only happened the day before yesterday?” Malon murmured after a few long moments of silence, worry and underlying fear lacing her voice as well as being visible in her eyes when he met her gaze. “She can stop the flow of the time stream so why wouldn’t she use that to set up whatever it was she had planned?”

His breath caught slightly in his throat at that potential truth. It dropped his heart into his stomach and made it all the worse because it was entirely plausible for her to be capable of doing just that. “That… That being possible is very true Mal… But I still should have sensed her using her power if she was nearby.”

“Love, you have a wide radius you can sense, but you know her’s is larger. I remember you mentioning that you would need to scold Wild for using his powers as often as he did during trick-or-treating… What if…”

“She used that to keep track of Wild.... But how did she find him in the corn maze? I don’t remember him using his powers at all after he came home. So how did she know that's where he would be going?”

“I don’t know, maybe she was roaming a few places? Probably hoping for as few witnesses as possible?” Malon’s voice wavered slightly and she took a slow breath in to calm her nerves. 

“That’s likely. Especially if she was intending to get away quickly without being seen or caught.” Time leaned forward and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, stress lining his shoulders as he gathered his thoughts again. “We have to find her quickly. I don’t know what she’ll end up doing to him and I honestly fear for him Mal.”

A warm hand wrapped around his forearm where the sleeve had slid down and her thumb traced small circles against his skin. “We  _ will _ find him, Link. I trust and believe in you. We’ll bring him home, and we’re going to help him through whatever she did to hurt him.”

Time nodded and pulled his hands back from his face before he turned his arm in her grasp to twist his fingers with hers in a comforting grasp. “You’re right. I'm not going to stop looking for him either until he’s safe.”

Malon’s smile was still brittle, but there was a hopeful light in it before it sharpened. “I'm going to ask Sheik if they can punch her in the face for me.”

Her declaration had a small bubble of laughter burst from him because he knew that his partner would be more than happy to deliver the request when the chance was given. “Sheik would do it anyway. But I know they would put more force behind it if you asked.”

“I plan on it, but in the morning.  _ You _ need to go back to bed. We both do, come on.” Malon stood up and tugged her husband up to his feet and hugged him tightly.

Both of his arms wrapped firmly around her waist and held her just as tightly before he reluctantly pulled away. “I know, I know. Lead the way then.”

Time gave her a small smile as she rolled her eyes and tugged him along to the stairs and back up to their bedroom. Neither of them paid attention to the light over the stove again, intent on just getting up the stairs. Once there and within the quiet of their bedroom, he shed his housecoat as she did the same and he laid under the covers and faced his wife who was sitting up in the bed. “You’re not laying down Mal…”

“I know, I want to make sure you fall asleep before I do this time. You’ll just dwell and stay up the whole night if I don’t make sure you do Link.” A flat stare was on her face as she turned slightly and leaned towards him, after pulling a book off of her nightstand. With one hand she opened it and let the other settle down on Time’s head. 

“I love you, Malon.” Time sighed softly and smiled in the same matter as he let his eye slide shut once her hand started carding through his hair gently. 

“I love you too Link, now sleep.” Malon said quietly, the sound of a smile in her voice before she started to hum. There was a short period of time where he felt like he was floating as sleep finally started to pull him under its hold. 


	9. Knowing What Hurts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A late night warm drink settles the mind.

Malon sat up in the bed reading her novel, and letting her fingers gently card through her husband's hair for little over an half hour. She was intent on making sure he was sleeping deeply before she slowly stopped the gentle action and pulled her fingers free. With ease, she replaced the bookmark and set it back on the table. 

Just as she was about to shut off her bedside lamp and settle back into the bed to sleep, the sound of someone walking down the hallway drew her attention. She paused there, blanket lifted slightly as she had been mid motion while she listened, rain still pattering softly against the glass of the window. A glance at the clock showed it was nearing one in the morning, which normally was the time all the kids settled in to sleep on the weekends, but with what had happened, it wasn’t a surprise that one of them had come upstairs.

The footsteps trudged past Twilight’s door and down further, which meant that it might have been Legend coming up to get something from their room. The table light was flicked off and she had just rolled over to face Link, when there was a soft thump and a whimper that had her going still. Her ears strained to hear anything more and when she heard a soft choked sound she pushed the covers carefully off of her and slipped out of the bed, careful not to wake her husband up as he’d done the same for her.

Malon stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind her and turned to face the kids’ bedrooms. Her heart jumped into her throat seeing Hyrule silhouetted in Wild’s door way, the light travelling down the hallway. Tears burned in her eyes as she moved down the hallway to the bedroom she’d yet to enter since the day before when she helped Wild get ready for Trick-or-Treating.

Dropping gently down to her knees, she reached out and gently put a hand on Hyrule’s shoulder. It startled him slightly and when he whipped his head around to face her, she saw fresh tears forming in his eyes. “Oh Hyrule…”

The teenager swallowed thickly obviously trying to rein in his emotions and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and pulled his left hand off of the doorknob. He brought it to his chest, clutching tightly to the nightshirt he wore and he took a shaky breath. His voice was brittle, wavering as he spoke. “Why did she take him mom?”

Malon opened her mouth before stopping for a moment, swallowing her own tears down past the knot that was in her own throat. There was a tremble present in her own voice, whisper soft but strong enough to be heard. “I don’t know Hyrule. I wish I did…”

When Hyrule lifted his head up and opened his eyes, the tears started to spill over and Malon didn’t hesitate to open her arms for the teenager, much like her eldest child had done for him earlier in the evening and like she had done just before dinner. He didn’t hesitate again and she held him close, turning slightly to let her back rest against the door frame. 

Hot tears soaked her shoulder within moments and she had her own face pressed to Hyrule’s hair, her own tears spilling free. The flimsy wall  _ she _ had built up after her own break down earlier, shattering again into pieces she didn’t think she’d have the ability to rebuild for a while. Both of them sat there, illuminated by the light in Wild’s room, crying softly enough to not disturb the rest of the house’s occupants despite them all being on the far end of the house. 

Gradually Malon’s tears tapered off and she felt wrung out like a wash rag. Hyrule’s grip on her shoulder had relaxed and he’d turned his head away from her so he could catch his breath and she could hear his breath hitch faintly as he sniffled. She knew she’d have to change when she went back to bed, but that was for then, right now she needed to get Hyrule settled back in bed downstairs with the others.

“Hyrule, let's get you back to bed alright?”

There was a moment where she thought the teen fell asleep against her before he shook his head slightly. His voice was rough now, strained from how hard he’d sobbed again. “Can’t sleep… Had a really weird dream and I…”

“Do you want me to make you something warm to drink? I think we have a cocoa mix or even fresh chocolate.”

“Please?”

“Of course, come on then, up you get.” Gently she helped him up to his feet and she stood up with him, swaying slightly as her legs started to wake up from where they had fallen asleep with pins and needles prickling along her skin. Rather than going to the front stairs she gently turned Hyrule to the back stairs and ushered him ahead. “I’ll be right down Hyrule.”

When he gave her a dazed nod and moved towards the stairs, she turned to look in Wild’s room. Her eyes locked on the candy bag that was still sitting on the teens bed and she had to swallow a fresh wave of tears down before she shut off the light and closed the door quietly. She had a teenager to help sleep, she’d have time later to cry again in her husband's arms.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs she entered the kitchen only to stop when she didn’t see Hyrule in there, but the light over the stove  _ was _ on showing the teen had come in before leaving, at least that’s what she thought. Then again, the light  _ had _ been on earlier when she came down looking for Link now that she thought about it. 

She didn’t have far to go though. 

Soft murmurs caught her attention from the living room and she stepped out of the kitchen and looked to the source, seeing Legend at the piano bench again. Their fingers were playing along the surface of the key cover, being mindful of the sleeping occupants of the house. Hyrule was sitting next to them, the pair practically glued to each other's side. She wouldn’t eavesdrop on whatever the two were talking about, but she  _ would _ get the hot cocoa started. The smell of the sweet drink would hopefully draw them both into the kitchen. 

By the time the milk was warming on the stove top and the chocolate was melting within it, she heard the soft padding of bare feet on the tile and her ear flicked. “Go ahead and sit down you two, it’s almost done and I made plenty.”

Two of the breakfast chairs slid out and when she turned with the pan to the three mugs she had lined up she looked at the pair, seeing that they were practically hip to hip again. She smiled softly and poured the cocoa evenly between all three and put the remaining amount back on the stove on the turned off burner so it remained warm. “Do either of you want any toppings?”

“Whipped cream please mom…” was the soft murmur from Legend, their arms on the counter, head pillowed on them. 

“Please?” Hyrule spoke up just as quietly. 

Malon nodded and turned to the refrigerator and retrieved the can of whipped cream they bought for this very reason. She picked out her own mug and pushed the other two across the counter to the pair and let them put their own amounts on. She was fine without the cream added, the chocolate already making the milk sweet enough.

All three of them sat in the silence of the kitchen listening to the house settle around them and the faint sounds of the animals out in their barns making soft calls to one another. It was a few minutes into that comfortable silence that Legend spoke up, idling turning their half empty mug around on the countertop.

“Is it… common to have parallel dreams mom?” 

The question caught her off guard and she paused mid-motion with her mug halfway to her lips again. “Parallel dreams? You mean shared?”

“Yea I guess…” Legend shrugged and glanced at Hyrule from under their bangs.

Hyrule was staring at the contents of his own mug, empty as far as she could see. He didn’t look up at her, but he did lift his chin a bit. “We think we both had the same dream.”

She  _ had _ heard of people sharing dreams before but usually a super was involved with their powers to make it possible. As far as she knew neither of the two in front of her had any sort of control over the realm of dreams. “It  _ is _ possible yes, but usually it involves a super with powers pertaining to it. They aren’t common though, few even know they  _ can _ influence someone's dreams at all.”

“Oh…”

“Do you want to tell me what you two dreamed of? You might be able to figure out where the source came from with an outside point of view.” Both teens looked at one another then back to their cups for a moment. Legend hunched their shoulders and Hyrule shifted in his seat a little. Malon was patient for them though. It was obvious that neither of them knew  _ what _ to think about this dream.

“We… We saw Wild,” Malon inhaled sharply but said nothing, letting Legend continue. “He… He was in a small room, maybe the size of our shared bathroom. He looked exhausted, like he hadn't been sleeping at all. He’s not in his halloween costume anymore, just this plain shirt and sweatpants.”

“Wild was crying, almost incoherently. I tried to reach him but... that's where I woke up.” Hyrule murmured as he looked up to her. “I thought he’d been in his bedroom and bathroom crying from having had a nightmare when I woke up so I went up looking for him… I forgot that he wasn’t here.”

Legend gently nudged Hyrule’s side with their elbow in a supportive gesture. “I woke up a little after that. Wild was wishing to come home... I don’t know what to do mom, I don't understand  _ why _ we would share a dream like that..”

Malon set her empty mug down on the counter too and looked between the two of them. “I don’t either, but maybe the two of you should start writing down your dreams just in case this may continue. Comparing them might help you figure it out. I’m always willing to listen and you know this, so if you need someone else to help you look through them, I am more than happy to help alright?”

Her words were gentle but firm, wanting to urge them both into doing as she asked. Neither of the pair said anything for a moment or two before they nodded. When both looked at her she gave them both a small and watery smile. “We have enough cocoa left for another half mug each, would you two like some more?”

Both of them nodded their heads and she turned to the pan behind her and heard both of their mugs slide back across the counter to her. It was still warm and lightly steaming, which she knew both teens appreciated when they pulled their mugs back and put their whipped cream on top again. But before she started on her own, she put the pan in the sink and rinsed it out to be washed fully come morning, no reason to let it crust on the sides and have to be soaked later after all.

“Do you two want to watch a movie after this is done or just straight back to bed?”

“Bed, should try to sleep some more mom.” Legend murmured over the top of their cup, both hands holding the warm ceramic close.

Hyrule nodded, before he took a drink himself. “Yea…” 

Malon hummed softly as she took another drink for herself, carefully finishing off her warm drink. She rinsed out her mug and stepped aside when she heard one of them come up to her side. Warm arms wrapped around her waist and she lifted her arm up to let the one hugging her slip under her arm so she could hug them firmly in return. When she saw  _ who _ it was, her heart soared, but she squeezed them close without saying anything at all. 

Legend’s mug was put into the sink and they were pressed close, clearly seeking comfort that she was more than willing to give the teen. They had pressed their head against her shoulder, fingers clenched in her nightgown for a moment before they pulled back just enough to look up. “Thanks mom, for the cocoa.”

“You’re welcome. Let's get you two back to bed alright?” 

Hyrule had come up on her other side once his own mug was put away, and she lifted that arm to hug him close again when he burrowed into her side once more. Malon let the teen hug tightly onto her for a few moments before he pulled back slightly and swiped at his face with the back of one hand to brush away a fresh wave of tears. Legend hadn’t shrugged her arm off of their shoulders so she pressed a quick kiss to the top of both teens’ heads. 

“Come on.” 

Both of them started to teeter slightly as she guided them back to the guest room and she nudged the door open with a foot where it was cracked open. Twilight, Sky, and Warriors were laying on the spare mattress they had pulled out from under the bed, blankets tangled around them and their breathing slow and deep in their sleep. 

A small smile crawled onto her face as she helped the pair under her arms back into the bed itself. She pulled the covers over them both and it was only a matter of seconds before both of them were out cold. Neither of them were probably all that conscious to begin with, and Hyrule’s tears probably didn’t help him at all. Once they were settled in and she checked on the other three, she pulled another hidden blanket out of the closet to drape over the three older boys, making sure they were comfortable. Quietly she shut the door behind her when she left the room and made her way back upstairs.

Making good on her promise to herself to change her nightgown, she slipped back into bed once she was in a fresh one and settled back down. She shifted so that she was closer to her husband and tucked herself against his chest. Link shifted in his sleep as well, draping his arm over her waist and burying his face into her hair before falling still again. 

Sleep was quick in its arrival once she relaxed. Her last conscious thoughts were of her children, and a plea and a prayer to whoever would listen that her youngest would be safe and be returned home swiftly.


	10. Knowing You Cannot Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A wish to go home will be unfulfilled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! The final chapter of _What Follows After_. I hope you have enjoyed this emotional ride with us and will continue to enjoy what we have to for the Sky High AU!

_ Dark. Cold. Light. Soft. Cold. Dark. _

_ It was a blurry haze. He didn’t know. Didn’t understand. Words were murmured, whispered, quiet. But he didn’t know them. _

_ Light. Cold. Warm. Soft.  _

_ Soft calls of a voice he should recognize. A voice he couldn’t hear. Maybe could hear? He heard a name.  _

_ His name? _

_ The voice - maybe familiar? - called gently, softly. _

_ Scared. _

_ The voice was scared. The voice was scared and it called. _

_ It called a name. _

_ A name he knew. _

_ His name? _

_ The voice called. Another voice called. He could see someone. Another someone.  _

_ The someones had the voices. _

_ The voices called.  _

_ The voices called a name, and the name was a name he knew.  _

_ It was a name he could hear being called. He was being called.  _

_ The voices were calling him. _

_ Calling him. _

**“Wild.”**

_ The voices were calling him. The someone’s were reaching for him. He wanted to go. He  _ **had** _ to go.  _

_ He wanted to go with the someones with voices.  _

_ But another voice held him back.  _

_ Cold. Dark. _

_ This voice was not like the others.  _

_ This voice was not familiar. This voice was not warm. _

_ The voice held him close. It wouldn’t let him go.  _

_ He wanted to go with the other voices. He wanted to be with them.  _

_ But he was held down, not able to leave as the other voice held him.  _

_ The someones with voices were fading away.  _

_ He didn’t want them to go.  _

_ He wanted them to stay. _

_ He tried to call. But his own voice would not work. _

_ The someones with voices did not hear.  _

_ The someones faded. The voices grew quieter.  _

_ He could hear the other voice though.  _

_ The other voice grew louder.  _

_ It hummed to him. A song he once knew.  _

_ A song he did not want to hear.  _

_ The voice sang to him, and he felt the cold; he felt the dark. It was coming to him fast. _

_ He didn’t want the cold. He didn’t want the dark.  _

_ But the voice did not hold him back.  _

_ The voice sang to him. It sang it’s song he did not want as fingers ran through his hair.  _

_ The voice sang until the song ended. The cold was closer now. The dark was closer too.  _

_ He could not stay away from either.  _

_ He fell into the cold. He fell into the dark.  _

_ And as he fell, he heard the voice whisper to him: _

**“Rest well my Link, knowing you are safe again with your mother.”**


End file.
